Sibling Rivalry
by Rogue 559
Summary: Gabriel came, he saw, he didn't quite conquer...story complete
1. Mackenzie

Disclaimer: Mackenzie, Maia, Alex and all the other people that are at the school belong to me. Just to point out the obvious-Mutant X does not. 

I don't want to write a summary cos then it kind of gives the whole thing away and I want to be secretive for now. A secretive and mysterious blonde-ha ha ha! I'm so funny sometimes, I just crack myself up. Anyways on with the show. I hope you like. Review please, I need to feel love. 

Have a nice day.

The snow came pouring out of the sky. It had collected on the cars all the way up and down the street but was gradually being scooped up in the hands of all the 6th formers. They were old enough to know better but snow didn't fall everyday in London, as a general rule it didn't fall every year. Atleast not to the extreme of that day.

Mackenzie sat at her usual spot in the library, next to one of the huge windows. She was curled up on the chair, trying to get as close to the radiator as possible. She was succeeding in her quest to stay as warm as possible and enjoy the snow at the same time. She could see some of her friends setting up defenses behind random cars so they could aim snowballs at the heads of passing year nines without the threat of anybody getting any kind of revenge paid on them. 

She was tempted to go down and join them but needed some alone time. Mac (the name her friends had affectionately bestowed upon her) wasn't lonely when she had nobody to hang out with. She was used to it and being alone wasn't forced upon her, it was something she chose from time to time. 

She was different from all the other kids at school. She knew it and it was lucky that none of them did. Her friends were spectacularly loyal and stuck by her through anything and everything but if they found out about her well kept secret she had no idea how they would react. She'd understand if they never talked to her, or if they were scared of her, or if they hated her. She had gone through a dark period where she had been scared of herself. 

There had always been something a little off about her. She had first started noticing it when she was seven. She had gotten angry about something, what it was wasn't important. The next moment she had been throwing bolts of electricity around. She had stopped as soon as she realized the gravity of what was going on. She had been so scared she hadn't come out of her room for a week. When her parents had finally persuaded her that everything was going to be okay she had unlocked her door. But that hadn't made her any less frightened that she would hurt someone or get hurt herself. 

By the time she was ten she had learned to control her abilities. She had trained by herself in private moments. Whenever she could get away from people she would practice. She had gotten pretty good by that time. 

A couple of weeks before her eleventh birthday Mackenzie's parents had taken her to this huge building. Mac remembered it had looked like a military compound. There were no curves, no wood, just concrete slab upon concrete slab with a little cold, harsh steel thrown in for good measure. There weren't many windows. Mac hadn't liked the look of it from the word 'go'. 

When her parents had taken her inside she was taken aback by the reception they received. Everybody she saw had stared at her and her mum and dad with a mixture of fear, pride and awe. 

There were scientists with white coats, clipboards in hands, assistants trailing a few steps behind. There were men in smart, tailored suits with earpieces, gelled hair and guns in holsters under their jackets. 

She had wondered what the place was, a place where scientists and agents (for lack of a better word) walked past each other in corridors. She wasn't scared exactly, just curious. 

Well, anyway, her parents had taken her through more corridors to a room, which looked a little more like a regular office, all except the panels of flashing lights along two of the walls. She was introduced to a guy with the palest skin and the whitest hair she had ever seen. Even the hair the pictures of Santa Clauses on the front of Christmas cards had couldn't compete with this guy. 

He had introduced himself as Mr. Eckhart. And then her parents had been taken off into a different room.

Looking back on it, Mac had realized that her parents had to have known that when they left that room, they wouldn't be coming back. They were going to be separated from their daughter and yet they didn't say goodbye, they didn't shed a single tear. They just smiled at her like they normally did, told her that they'd be back in a minute and left her in a room with some stranger. Not even so much as a backward glance. Of course Mac didn't notice this stuff at the time but it hurt when she had figured it out. It hurt now. It hurt to know that the parents she had loved with all her heart didn't care enough to say goodbye to their ten year old daughter. 

A snowball hit the window, violently pulling her out of her own thoughts. She didn't mind the interruption and smiled down at the boy who had thrown it. His name was Alex; he was one of her friends. She laughed as her best friend Maia walked up behind Alex, snowball in hand and slammed it down on top of his head. He looked like a wreck, fragments of snow and ice spraying off his hair as he shook his head back and forth. Mac smiled at him as he shot her a wry look, gathered some snow in his gloved hands and went off in search of Maia. 

Mac couldn't remember a recent time when she had been so happy. She had good friends and had learnt to smile again. It wasn't a lot to anybody else but to her it was an improvement. 

Alex and Maia having resolved their conflict by shoving snow down each other's backs stood below the library window. Mac looked down at them and after a couple of seconds thought grabbed her coat, gloves, scarf and bag from the table and ran out of the library to join her friends.


	2. Its all in the entrance

I didn't get a whole lot of feedback from the first chapter, probably cos its moving along a little slow. Sorry about that but I have to introduce all the characters first. Plus I'm trying to fill in Mac's back-story. I promise eventually it will gain something vaguely resembling momentum. 

Have a nice day.

Shalimar dumped her black leather biker jacket on the steps leading up to the dojo. She had just been to enter two new mutants into the underground, one elemental, one psionic. It had been a complete waste of time.

It wasn't that they hadn't showed. They most certainly had Shal thought as a frustrated sigh escaped from her lips. They had turned up bringing along ten Strand members.

It had been a long, hard fight. Shalimar had managed to take out six of them including the psionic, a woman named Connie before being overpowered by the rest. They had gotten her onto the floor but she had swept their legs from beneath them all in one last effort. She had jumped over their heads and ran for her motorbike sparing a punch for Russell, the elemental on the way.

She wasn't sorry for the workout. She hadn't had a really good one in quite a while but she was sorry and she knew Adam would be to that they had lost two more seemingly nice new mutants to Gabriel. Two more new mutants for them to fight. If Gabriel kept on getting to new mutants like he had been over the past couple of months soon there wouldn't be any to put into the underground.

Shalimar walked to the lab. Adam was giving Brennan his regular checkup, Jesse was playing around on the computers, Emma was nowhere to be seen. Shal walked through the doors, ready to tell Adam that she had just gotten screwed over by Gabriel…again.

Mac raced along the balcony that went around two walls of the main hall. There were four classrooms leading off from it and she raced past three of them. She skidded to a halt outside the fourth. She had spent so long playing around in the snow, that not only was she completely drenched from head to foot, she was also very late for her next lesson.

She considered ditching it so she could have enough time to come up with some kind of excuse but she then noticed two girls, both of which were in her politics class come running down the hall towards her. If three of them went in together it surely wouldn't be that bad. 

Mac pushed open the door to the classroom and trying not to attract too much attention to herself walked to her desk and slid into her seat. The teacher didn't seem to care too much. He was looking forward to getting the rest of the day off. The snow had been falling since first thing that morning and the principle had decided to let everybody go home at lunchtime. He smiled at Mac as she raised her eyes to look at him. 

Mac was one of his best students, an intelligent girl who seemed to catch onto everything he taught so quickly that it was sometimes hard to keep up. She didn't talk much in class, didn't offer answers but she worked steadily and got good grades. He had no reason to complain about her. 

It was weird though. She had had a tough upbringing and her education had been interrupted due to her movement from foster home to foster home. She wasn't really settled anywhere, she had no permanent address and yet she did fantastically well at all her classes. Mac was a mystery. But he loved teaching her. He loved teaching people who didn't boast about their intelligence but used it to best affect. 

Mac pulled her books out of her bag. Luckily they weren't too wet from all the snow but the pages were bent and crumpled. She didn't have much of a desk to put them in at home. In fact she didn't have much of a bed to sleep in, it wasn't like you could even call what she lived in a home. She had run away from her last foster home. They were nice and all but she had felt trapped. And they hadn't really had any clue as to how to deal with a new mutant, especially one like Mac. She had found an old, disused apartment and had started living there. It was away from the rest of the world, just the way she liked it. Since she had moved in she had tidied it up, made it look and feel more like a place she could settle in. She had to work in a bar to get food in her fridge. The people there didn't pay well but the tips were good money. She didn't mind having guys stare at her ass before they went home to their wives provided they paid her well for the privilege. The bar wasn't seedy and they let her wear pretty much what she wanted so if she felt like covering up she could have. But covering up lessened the amount of cash she got at the end of the night. It wasn't worth it. 


	3. Your mission should you choose to accept...

Emma was sitting on her bed. She had needed to get away from the noise of the rest of Sanctuary for a while. To anybody else it wasn't that loud but to a psionic outward noise wasn't the problem. Emma had been trying to meditate and open up her mind for close on an hour now but couldn't seem to focus on anything enough. She wasn't too bothered by this occurrence; she was just in one of those moods where she couldn't find the energy to do anything. She was completely lethargic. And with Brennan and Jesse getting their regular check-up there was no one to talk to or hang out with. 

Emma let herself drop back onto the bed and lay there, staring at the ceiling, wondering when Shalimar would be back. She had gone out to introduce some new mutants to the underground and had declared that when she got back her and Emma were going to a club to catch up on some serious partying. 

None of them had gone out in a while due to the constant, nagging worry of Gabriel Ashlocke. Adam had taken caution over risk and told them that they were not to go out unless it was on new mutant business, they were not to give Gabriel any chances in which to kick their asses. But Shalimar wasn't scared of Gabriel. Or atleast, she did a good job of hiding it. Emma knew better than to mistake Shalimar's bravado for actual emotion. She was as scared of Ashlocke as anyone but Shal needed to be free to roam and could always be counted on to wear Adam down. 

'Emma, I need you in the lab, quickly.' She jumped as she heard Adams voice come over her com link, she had completely forgotten that she was wearing it. She sat up, reluctant to go anywhere but knowing by Adams tone that something was up. She slid off the bed and walked out of her room.

'So, either of you know what the hell this assembly is about?' asked Alex as the trio of him, Maia and Mac took their seats in the main hall.

'I heard it was just a regular one, you know the usual stuff that tends to bore us all senseless,' replied Maia as she took off her jacket and hung it up on the back of her chair.

The hall was full of kids. Maia had managed to secure the gang some seats at the back of the hall so they could talk through the speeches made by the teachers. They could see everybody sitting in front of them, the year 7's at the front so they could be scared into submission by the teachers on the stage, the year 8's and 9's in the middle. The year 10's and 11's would be up the hill at the other school having their own assembly, as they couldn't possibly have squeezed them all into the main hall down the hill.

Mac had always hated assemblies. What was the point? All the tutors ever talked about was responsibility and being mature. They had all heard it a million times before. And no one ever thought to open any windows so it always got unbearably hot no matter what kind of weather was going on outside. 

'Excuse me, could you all please be quiet?' One of the teachers attempted to gain some kind of peace, but it was like trying to draw blood from a stone. After about ten minutes of various teachers trying their own ways to gain silence (shouting, coaxing, some attempting to bribe the student body) the kids in the hall quieted down enough for the principal to speak. 

'As you will all have noticed, outside it is snowing.' A laugh made its way around one class like a mexican wave as one kid made the obvious reply of 'duh!' The principal, completely undaunted made to carry on.

'What's up Adam?' questioned Jesse as he rounded the corner into the main room of Sanctuary. Adam had the computer screen up in front of him. It was showing the blueprints of a massive building accompanied by a smaller map. The building was in between suburbia and shopping centers, next to a main road.

'This is HAHC, a high school located in London. I've heard some rumours in the underground that this is Gabriel's next target.'

'Could it be a trap?' asked the still wary Shalimar. She didn't like Gabriel, didn't trust any information about him and most certainly didn't trust the man himself. 

Adam looked at Shalimar. He knew she was just being cautious and he knew that she could handle herself but that didn't keep him from worrying about her. 

'Could be,' he stated simply looking Shalimar in the eyes and sending a reassuring smile her way. She smiled back, rolling her eyes knowing exactly what he was thinking. He was feeling guilty and as per usual when anything bad happened to any of them he was wondering what he had done to these poor little new mutants. It was written all over his face.

'I know this could be a trap but it's a school. If there is even the slightest possibility that something is going to happen there I want Mutant X to be a part of it. You can land on the roof and if it's a false alarm then you can get away without being seen.'

The team nodded as they went to get changed out of their 'lounging around Sanctuary all day with nothing to do' outfits. Ten minutes later they were all sitting in Helix, strapped in and ready to go. Adam forwarded all the details of the school to them and they were away.


	4. Impact

A scream went up from all the kids in the main hall as the glass of the four huge windows smashed inwards. New mutants jumped through them landing on the ground with ease, most of them with some kind of feral mutation.

The crowd of people backed away from the new mutants, some trying to disappear completely, others hoping that if they screamed loud enough everything would go back to being normal. Some of the teachers, the slightly braver ones stood in front of the kids creating a barrier between them and the oncoming threat. Others tried to stand behind the students, keeping as far away from any of the action as possible.

The new mutants (approximately ten of them) were joined by ten more who appeared through the main doors to the hall. They were soon joined by a man, around 6'0" with brown hair, a prominent bone structure and incredibly pouty lips. A look of disdain crossed his face as he surveyed the worthless humans standing in front of him. Well, not quite worthless. Mutant X would hear about this soon and they would turn up as always ready to save the day. Gabriel didn't know why they bothered. What was the point of saving people who would only end up hating them anyway? But it didn't matter because through these pointless little people with their pointless little existences he was gonna get Mutant X and through them the ultimate revenge on Adam. 

A smirk came to his face as the thoughts flitted through his mind. It was a perfect plan. A couple of hundred people at risk would definitely bring Shalimar, Brennan, Jesse and Emma running to help. They couldn't resist the helpless. And when Mutant X came he would have the Strand keep them occupied while he sat back and watched. No effort on his part and plenty on theirs. That was the way he liked it. 

Double Helix sped its way across the sky. The team wasn't entirely sure what was going on at their final destination. All they knew was that whether the rumours Adam had heard were true or false, if regular people and possible new mutants were in danger they had to go check it out. And plus kicking Gabriel's ass was always fun. Atleast that was the view Shalimar took. She loved beating the crap out of any new mutant stupid enough to piss her off. If it was Gabriel, that was a bonus.

The others were slightly more cautious. Emma had felt how much Gabriel could scare people. She had felt their fear and it had frightened her. The first time they had gone up against Gabriel had been hard enough. They had worked their butts off. She didn't savour the battles against Gabriel like Shalimar. But then Shalimar always did, she was like that. Emma smiled to herself remembering all the times Shalimar had gone up against the odds. She always enjoyed the adrenaline rush.

Jesse was cautious like Emma. Occasionally Emma would let her wild side come out during the fight but Jesse was more reserved, he concentrated a lot more when hurting people. It was just his way. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy kicking ass but he was a heck of a lot quieter about it than Shal. 

Brennan was only slightly less excited about beating the bad guys to a pulp than Shalimar was. The adrenaline rush was so cool. There was no other way he could have gotten that same feeling. And when he wasn't kicking ass he loved watching Shalimar do her thing. She was so graceful it was hard not to be completely in awe of her. The fact that she looked gorgeous even when fighting was just a plus. 

'Sir, would you please leave…and…and take all your…colleagues with you. This is a private building.'

Gabriel was getting pissed off waiting. He had never been a very patient man and he didn't like waiting around for Mutant X. Did they not realize what a tight schedule he was on. He had other places to be and other people to do. And this guy was majorly annoying. Gabriel looked down at him. The teacher must have been 5'9", jovial looking, atleast 50 years old. Gabriel could have squashed him like a bug but it was mildly entertaining watching the guy stutter and stammer his way through whatever the hell he was saying. Gabriel hadn't really been listening, he didn't need to bother. Just the sight of this guy plus the feelings Gabriel was getting off him were side-splitting. Gabriel was smiling… on the inside. 

But the novelty of it all was wearing thin and now Gabriel was bored. This idiot was taking precious time away from Gabriel's day, time that Gabriel wouldn't get back. It was time to finish this he thought, just seconds before he pulled his fist back and slammed it into the face of the teacher. The fool dropped to the floor like the weak human he was.

Gabriel smirked as he looked over at his second in command. She was a tall athletic brunette, feral/ thermal elemental mix. His look told her that she was in charge. Gabriel stalked out of the room, he was bored of it, wanted a different view. 


	5. Getting in

Hiya, sorry it has taken me so long to write some more. Schoolwork has been piled on by every single one of my teachers. Lucky me. Anyways heres the next chapter. Sorry if it has been rather slow, I've been trying to build Mac a past before I start on her present and that takes a while. But I promise to try and get to the actual story soon. 

Thanks for the reviews, as always once you've read…review.

Have a nice day.

Mackenzie stood up in anger as Gabriel knocked Professor Callaghan over. He was her history tutor and a genuinely nice guy, an unusual trait for a teacher to have she thought with a wry smile. Gabriel didn't notice her and walked out of the room, but a couple of the Strand guys started looking her way. Everybody was sitting up against one of the longer walls, most of them scared and confused, all of them being watched by the 20 or so new mutants. 

Mackenzie walked to the front of the group and knelt down next to the Professor. She had to check that he was okay. She knew how powerful a punch from a new mutant could be. She knew she could handle herself but she wasn't so sure about her teachers. And they were just pawns in this little game of Gabriel's. 

Mac had learned to hack into computers from a very early age. She was pretty good at it as well. Just like everything she did Mackenzie had picked it all up quickly. Her hacking abilities had grown from her desire to find out what she was. She had been told by all of her foster families that she was special; she was different. And she had always had this feeling that she was a complete individual. She just hadn't known how much of one. So when she had heard tell of a company called Genomex, which specialized in DNA experimentation, she had had to find out more. There were no ifs or buts about it, Mac had to know where she came from and what she was. 

So she had hacked until she had gained access to the Genomex system and then she had pored over all the files which bore any relation to her. She had found out about her past, her parents, everything. 

Soon all the Strands were watching her. They were just itching for somebody to step out of line cos until Mutant X turned up they had nothing to do. Gabriel's second in command, Annie walked over to the girl. She looked about 16 and in helping her teacher out had just signed her own death sentence. Annie was gonna take great pleasure in killing this one. She had been ordered by Gabriel to kill any student who stepped out of line. She had stepped out of the group, that was enough.

Seeing this another of Mackenzie's teachers started telling her to sit down. He didn't want any of his students to get hurt by these crazy, dangerous people. He had no idea what they were doing in the school or what they wanted but he didn't want his kids to suffer because of them. He just wished Mackenzie would sit down and shut up. She was gonna get into trouble if she didn't get back into the group.

But Mackenzie wouldn't back down. There was no way these creeps were gonna get away with treating all these people like crap. Just cos some new mutants held the belief that they were God didn't mean they got to act like it with regular people who couldn't defend themselves. 

The door to Helix opened and Mutant X walked out into the bright sunshine. Shalimar stretched her arms above her head, glorying in the warmth of the sun. Jesse closed the door behind him. The Helix became invisible. 

They had landed on the roof of the school and now just had to try and find a way in without being noticed by the Strand if they were even there. Adam had found out nothing new about what was going on inside so for the moment Mutant X was pretty much in the dark. They would have to find out by themselves. 

Brennan walked over to the door that presumably would lead them down from the roof. It was locked, just as they had expected. 

'Hey Jesse.' Brennan looked over to the blonde haired guy. 'How would you feel about phasing us through this?'

Jesse walked over to the door. He smiled, knowing Brennan would usually have blown it in by this point, and if he hadn't Shalimar would have kicked it down. But stealth was a factor that came into play in this kind of situation. He was glad to be of service with his newly evolved powers. They may not have been as flashy as Brennan's but they still came in handy occasionally. 

While all this was going on Shalimar had been checking the perimeter of the building. She had walked around the entire roof looking over all the sides to see if there was any clue as to what was going on. On reaching the fourth wall she had looked over and noticed shards of broken glass all over the ground. The ground may have been four storeys beneath her but with her feral vision she could pretty much pick up anything. She could hear faint sounds presumably coming from a room with a broken window. But they were faint and it was hard, even with her specialist hearing to pick up anything but mumbling. 

Emma had been looking around in her own way. She could sense the fear coming from the building beneath her. It was almost overwhelming. That wasn't just a few people being terrified out of their wits down there. There were atleast 75, possibly more. All their emotions were so tangled together that it was hard for her to work out an accurate number. She could sense something else though. It was intimidating and if the last set of emotions hadn't given the game away this set most certainly did. The Strand was in there, and they were terrorizing people. Which meant that somewhere in the whole scheme of things Gabriel had to be involved.

'Emma, Shal, are we getting into this place or what?' 

Brennan stood aside to let Shalimar in through the phased door first. With her feral senses she would be able to pick up on any Strand presence in the immediate area. 

Shalimar walked quietly through the door. Her eyes glowed as she looked around her. There wasn't a whole lot to see, just winding stairs leading on downwards. There weren't any windows and no Strand guys. She heard Emma, then Brennan and finally Jesse enter through the doorway. She led them down the stairs. Her enhanced senses worked best in this kind of environment. Darkness meant that smell, hearing, even taste were heightened. And it wasn't even that sight was such a problem. 

The rest of the team blindly followed Shalimar down, further into the darkness. Finally she reached the bottom and noticing the door which most likely led to the rest of the building she reached out for the handle. No surprise, this door was also locked. 

'Hey Jesse,' she whispered. 'How do you feel about working your magic again?'

Annie stood over Mackenzie, watching her. Why would someone want to help someone else just to get hurt in the process? If this girl had have left the teacher well enough alone then Annie wouldn't have to hurt her. It was sad it really was, thought Annie with a twisted smile. 

Alex and Maia were watching Mac. They had no idea what she thought she was doing but they knew they had to help somehow. Mac was gonna get her ass kicked unless they got her out of there. The students around Alex looked at him with confusion in their eyes as he stood up. A couple of them tried to drag him back down into a sitting position but he wasn't moving unless it was to help Mac. Maia stood up next to him. They looked each other in the eye, strangely fearless about what they were about to do. 

But they didn't get a chance to do anything. Just as Annie drew her foot back preparing to sweep Mac's legs from beneath her a door crashed open up on the balcony. Everybody's heads shot to look upwards just as Shalimar, seeing what was about to happen jumped over the wooden railing onto the floor below. A gasp went up from the students and the teachers and some of the Strand guys started to make their way over to her. Brennan, after firing a couple of tesla coils also launched himself over the balcony onto the floor beside Shalimar. Annie, disappointed that she hadn't gotten the chance to kick some ignorant girls butt went over to join her colleagues. As the fight broke out Emma and Jesse burst through the doors. They had taken the slightly more civilized route down the stairs, taking out a couple of strand on their way.


	6. Close encounters of the first kind

Once again, I find myself apologizing for taking so long. I don't quite understand why but all my teachers seem to think that they're homework should come before my finishing this story on my list of priorities. Whatever.

I don't seem to be getting many reviews. That doesn't really matter cos I'm gonna keep on writing whether you people like it or not. But I do feel unloved. *Tear rolls down her cheek, dripping off of her face onto her brand new pair of jeans, she's now quite pissed off* Anyway, hope everyone who reads this enjoys it. If you do-review, if you don't-review, if you're annoyed with me telling you to review-review and tell me to shut the hell up. I don't promise to pay any attention to you but whatever.

Have a nice day.

Seeing her chance, Mac stood up and, skirting the brawl made her way quietly out of the hall. The remaining students and teachers just watched on in shock as the group in front of them preceeded to carry out some of the most amazing moves they had ever seen.

Mac crept up the stone stairs knowing exactly where she was going and exactly who she was going to see. She wasn't scared…just nervous. She had never met Gabriel before, just read stuff in the Genomex files about him and what he had done. She probably should have been scared, even she knew that but right now that didn't matter, she was more worried about her friends.

Mac rounded the bend in the flight of stairs and carried on walking upwards. She could hear the sounds of the fighting…the screams of the students, the grunts as strand and mutant x alike got punched or kicked. She was quite glad she wasn't down there, even though she knew she could have held her own. She wasn't quite ready to show off her abilities to all of her classmates.

Gabriel had sensed Mutant X's presence seconds before they had entered the room. He knew they would turn up; it was just a case of when. When they walked out onto the balcony Gabriel, standing behind a pillar watched their faces, their movements, especially those of Shalimar. She had always interested him, right from the beginning. That was why he had taken her. He could have had any number of women but Shalimar had a fire, a passion that others did not. She fought when other women didn't. Even when he had her hypnotized she had struggled against it. It was, to him atleast an attractive quality.

She was wearing a long, worn, brown leather coat with a pair of dark blue jeans underneath. Both looked incredibly sexy on her petit frame. Her blonde hair looked wild and her eyes flashed as soon as she saw what was going on in the main hall. He watched as she jumped over the railing. She was so graceful and yet so strong. 

Gabriel's eyes flicked over to look at the auburn head of Emma. She was hot too, in a completely different way to Shalimar but still hot. She was gentler, less of an outward fighter but still strong. In that way Mutant X was very much a mysterious group. Their personalities contradicted those of their outward appearances. Shalimar and Emma were both strong and would fight him till the end but Brennan and Jesse no matter what they would have wanted people to believe were weak. Gabriel could have taken them in less than five seconds.

He watched the fight below. The links were getting their asses kicked and he knew he might have to put some effort in in a couple of minutes. Mutant X were martial arts trained, the strand were not. The only thing they had to rely on was their new mutant abilities. Plus in terms of having actual power Mutant X were four of the most formidable mutants created by Genomex. Even he had to admit that he had had a hard time fighting them. 

Mac walked round the corner of the balcony. She could see Gabriel leaning against the railing. He looked so casual despite what was going on below him. Mac had managed to tune out all the noise and having her goal in her sites headed towards it, completely focused. 

Gabriel turned around sensing some kind of presence. He didn't know who it was but they were on his balcony interrupting his fun. She had an air of confidence which delighted his senses. He loved bringing his opponents down a notch or two and ordinarily he would have taken great pleasure in doing so but this time was different. He had a fight to observe because, much as he hated to admit it Mutant X had kicked his ass last time they had met. He had to keep a close eye on them, do his research, discover their weaknesses. And this girl, whoever the hell she was was getting in his way.

Mac kept on walking. Gabriel was pissed and wanted to kill her. No change there then. She continued to walk towards him still unafraid. Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe it was because curiosity was overriding any fear she may have felt. She didn't care. She was finally getting to meet him. She could sense the annoyance and hostility radiating from Gabriel's every pore. He wanted to fight her with the minimum amount of effort. She smiled to herself as she pictured his face when he found out exactly who he was dealing with.

'Cool fight, huh?'

Gabriel just stared at her. Nobody had ever dared talk to him like that. It was understandable, she didn't know who he was, but it was still punishable. By the time he was finished with this girl, she would know who he was and she would know not to mess with him again.

He drew his hands together, feeling the familiar buzz rushing through his veins, letting the flashing blue energy flicker for a couple of seconds before releasing it at the girl. Mac knew what was coming. She bent her knees as he generated the energy and when he pushed the particles out towards her she pushed herself off of the ground, landing neatly on the railing to the right of Gabriel.

As she landed Shalimar was just finishing with her opponent. He had put up a strong fight but he never had a hope in hell. Something caught her eye, up on the balcony overlooking the hall. A girl was standing on the railing and as Shalimar's eyes went into feral mode she could make out the face of the man standing in front of the girl…Gabriel. 

Brennan looked to Shal to see what she had made of her adversaries…mush was an understatement. Then he looked to her. She was looking up, not paying any attention to what was going on around her, not that it mattered. The Strand were littered all over the floor. Brennan and the rest of Mutant X looked to where Shalimar's eyes were aimed. 

As if in slow motion Gabriel launched himself off the floor aiming a dropkick at the girls legs. He hit and she went flying. There was nothing any of the Mutant X team could do but watch. A gasp went up from the observing students and teachers. 

Mac felt the sudden pain in her legs as her feet slipped from beneath her. As she fell backwards she could make out Gabriel's eyes, staring at her, glinting. She could feel gravity pulling her downwards. And then she hit the floor.


	7. Lets get outta here

I've decided to stop apologizing for not updating this fiction very often. Its getting old. 

Here's the new chapter…not one of my better ones…or atleast I don't think so. But I'm tired and figured I should update anyway cos for atleast this week its really not gonna get any better than this…depressing thought. 

Hope you all enjoy…please review…thank you.

Have a nice day (I'm gonna go have a nice nap!)

An even bigger gasp went up from the crowd, so big you could practically feel the air being sucked from the room. Mac crouched on the floor, steadying herself with her hand. She stood up slowly, mentally ticking off the things that hurt. She flicked her now loose hair back from her face and looked up. Gabriel was gone. He had gotten scared and fled when faced with a new feral, Mutant X and the loss of all his minions. 

The corner of her mouth turned up and a small laugh escaped from her lips. 

Shalimar was the first to move. She had partly realized when the girl was standing on the railing what she was. When she had started her descent to the hard wooden floor below Shal had been certain. She was feral. She walked over to Mac ready to start talking to her. But Shal was cut off by other voices. 

'Get out.' The voice rang out across the hall. It was the voice of the principal. She was scared and nervous and angry that these crazy men and women had managed to make it into her school. She had finally gotten together the courage to speak and get rid of them. 

Mutant X looked up collectively. They weren't surprised by the reaction. When they had been growing up and unable to control their powers properly, people had said some pretty nasty things about them. They were however surprised that after all the ass kicking they had done to save these peoples lives they should be so ungrateful. But they knew they were fighting a losing battle. It was better to leave as good an impression as possible by not allowing themselves to be baited by people so ignorant. 

'Get out of my school, freaks!'

Shalimar's eyes flashed, she couldn't help it; she was pissed. Mac looked up at this. Her eyes were glowing golden. Brennan took Shalimar by the arm; Emma did the same to Mac. They couldn't afford to let the ferals get out of control. In the long run it would just cause them problems. 

Alex and Maia, who had been standing the whole time, stepped forward. They stood in front of Mac, staring her straight in the eye.

'Alex, Maia, sit down now,' called out one of the tutors. What were those two thinking of? He knew they were friends with Mac but she wasn't what they had believed her to be. She was a freak…and a dangerous one at that. She could probably hurt them just by looking at them. They needed to stay away from her.

Maia looked at the teacher that had spoken and then started to laugh.

'Would you people please make up your minds,' she called out, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Everyone, including the members of Mutant X and Mac looked at her, the confusion written clearly all over their faces.

'What did you just say?' asked the principal, completely shocked that Maia, always such a polite girl could raise her voice to her teachers of all people. And in such a situation. Hadn't there been enough problems for the day without her causing more?

'Well, first you're telling me to leave and then you're telling me to stay…I'm blonde. This kind of thing is likely to confuse me.' At that Maia turned and stalked out, the doors to the hall swinging shut behind her.

'Alex, sit down,' the principal said wearily. Today was supposed to have been easy what with all the students going home early. But it had turned into a nightmare. And now there were students going awol. The principal sighed and looked at Alex just in time to see him walk through the two doors, a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

'Looks like you're not the only high school freak,' Jesse said to Mac, bitterness and anger lacing his voice.

Brennan pulled gently at Shalimar's arm to signal that they should go. Gabriel may have gone already but they had to get back to Sanctuary to try and find out what he was doing there in the first place. Shalimar looked at Brennan. She would have been happy to beat the crap out of every person there. Or atleast, all the ones who were looking at her with disgust in their eyes. Their prejudices made her sick. She turned and walked out of the hall closely followed by Brennan and then Jesse. 

Emma was left behind looking at Mac waiting to see what she wanted to do. She refused to read the girl. Apart from being immoral it probably wasn't the right time or place to go searching through what was possibly a scared, confused mind. Mac turned and looked straight into the curious blue eyes of the red haired woman. Mac didn't trust anyone right now; she couldn't. But she needed to get out of this place. She needed to know more and eventually curiosity and the need to feel secure and safe for just a little while overruled those of fear and nervousness. She turned and walked past Emma out into the hallway. Emma followed still sensing the fear in the room behind her. That was a sensation that wouldn't leave for a while.


	8. Revelations

Here's the new chapter…duh! I haven't been getting a lot of reviews so I'm not sure if this is good or bad or if you're all really indifferent. Thank you to the people who did review. They were all really sweet, thank you.

This is the chapter which will explain a lot of stuff and then I promise I'm gonna get round to telling the actual story. The developmental stuff is kinda necessary so you're gonna have to bear with me.

Have a nice day.

Mutant X is back on Sky One on Wednesday. I've been so hyper ever since I found out.

'So, do we know what Gabriel wanted yet?' questioned Shalimar.

Adam looked at the assembled team in front of him. The four members of Mutant X looked totally at ease. Shalimar was leaning back on the bed in the centre of the room, her legs drawn into her chest. Brennan was perched on the end of the bed and Emma and Jesse had each taken chairs. Alex was leaning against one of the walls looking ridiculously casual and laid back, Maia was wandering around, trying to check out her surroundings subtly and Mac looked decidedly uncomfortable but was clearly too tired to do anything about it. 

'Not yet. I'm still waiting for some of my more hopeful contacts to reply to their e-mails. After that we should have something to go on. But until then,' he continued looking at the tired faces of the whole team (some of them were hiding it better than others but he could still tell) 'I think we should all get some rest.'

'I'll show these guys to their rooms,' offered Emma as she walked out of the lab, gesturing for the three youngest new mutants to follow her. Jesse walked out behind them, closing the lab door behind him. 

'So what's really going on Adam?' asked Shalimar pushing her legs away from her body and swinging them round so they were dangling over the edge of the bed.

'What do you mean?' Adam said, confusion spreading across his face.

'Fine, you don't want to tell us whatever it is that you know. I can accept that,' Shalimar said with a lopsided smirk.

'But I can't,' Brennan declared. The other two looked at him as he carried on speaking. 'Adam, we need to know what's going on. We need to know what's wrong.' Brennan looked straight into Adams eyes defiantly. He was fed up of people keeping secrets. It didn't ever help the situation and he was prepared to admit that he had kept secrets in the past but never ones that would have threatened his friends lives. And if this secret had anything to do with Gabriel then it was going to threaten everything they had worked so hard to build.

Adam turned with a sad look in his eyes to the computer behind him. He knew he had to tell them and it was only the guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach that had stopped him. 

Within a matter of seconds a file was pulled up from the new mutant database. There was a picture of Mac and all her details were listed next to the photo. Brennan and Shalimar both looked at all the information. Her full name (Mackenzie Chenoweth), followed by her date of birth and hometown. It also had all the details regarding her mutation and her family. Her entire past was on that screen. 

Brennan looked at it, puzzled. He had learned to work the database pretty soon after arriving at Sanctuary; he had had to. But it wasn't the reading of the file that was causing him problems. He was looking at Macs DNA strand. It reminded him of someone else's. In fact, parts of it reminded him of five people, him included. 

'Adam…'

'Yes, Mac is a member of all four new mutant groups, and yes, she has exactly the same mutations as all of you.' Adam answered the unasked question.

He turned to face the monitor again and drew up another file. Gabriel Ashlocke.

Shalimar stared into his eyes. They seemed alive even in the photo. They bore into her mind and she had to look away quickly. Brennan and Adam noticed Shalimar's sudden change in demeanor but decided to let it slide for now. 

'What has Gabriel Ashlocke got to do with Mac?' asked Brennan.

'Look at their profiles.'

Brennan and Shalimar looked. Their eyes grew wider simultaneously as they reached the exact same part in both profiles. Shalimar looked at Adam for confirmation of what she had just read. He looked back at her with a deep sorrow in his eyes. She couldn't believe it. She was completely shell-shocked. She couldn't speak.

Emma and Jesse broke the silence in the room when they walked into the lab. Looking around them they instantly noticed the tension.

'What's going on?' asked Jesse tentatively.

'Mac is Gabriel's sister?' Brennan replied incredulously.


	9. Finally

This is a really long chapter so you had all better be happy. I don't know what age Gabriel is supposed to be and I'm not even sure if all the information about his parents makes any sense. So if it doesn't obviously feel free to review and tell me so. 

I hope people are enjoying the story cos I'm not getting much response (the cogs of her mind whir into action as she tries to come up with more ways to gain sympathy reviews). 

Thank you to all the people who have reviewed already. Thanks for the support.

Have a nice day.

Gabriel fell back onto the bed, exhausted after the day he had just faced. The plan had been so perfect and yet again it had all been screwed up. But this time it was different…this time it wasn't Mutant X who had wrecked everything. It was his own sister. 

He hadn't known until she had flown over the edge of the balcony. He had taken the time to have a quick read through her mind and he had seen what she was, he had seen who she was. There was no mistaking it; she was his sister. He had gone back to the Genomex labs and had sat in front of one of their computers trying to find out everything he could about that girl. Her name was Mackenzie and she had been born in 1985, making her 17 years old. Initially the mathematics of it all didn't add up. Gabriel was 30 and he had killed his parents when he was 10. That would have to make Mackenzie atleast 20 years old. 

And then he had understood. Those people he had killed when he was 10, that man and that woman that he had eviscerated. They had never been his parents. He must have been placed with a foster family. He had never even met his parents. That pissed him off. He had lived his entire life believing that he had killed the very people that had turned him into a freak. 

And now he had Mutant X and his little sister to deal with. All he had planned was for Mutant X to hear about what was going on, turn up, fight for a little bit and for him to leave. He had wanted to observe them, check out their moves. Atleast he had gotten the information he had come for from the schools files. 

He looked up as some of the Strand members walked into the huge open plan building. It was a huge warehouse with all mod cons installed. It had been a lucky find, out on the edge of the town. Not too far away and not so close that anyone could walk in. Secrecy was not a huge part of the Strands lifestyle considering the amount of advertising they had put out but it wouldn't do for anybody, including Mutant X to just come waltzing in so the security system was top of the range. 

Annie was one of the Links that had just entered. The rest had also been at the school that day. Gabriel had gotten out quickly, only checking to make sure that the Link that had been hacking into the schools computer system, Marlon was out of the building. They had gotten away fine and Gabriel had left the rest of the Strand to make their own way back in the other plane.

And now they were back Gabriel could get on with the real reason he had been at that school.

Shalimar sat on the edge of the meditation pool, staring down into the shallow water that was barely touched by a single ripple. The lights in Sanctuary barely cast a glow; it was 2 in the morning after all. Nobody was awake but Shalimar, just the way she liked it. Macs nocturnal side, although there hadn't fully kicked in yet and she was sleeping in one of the spare rooms. 

Shalimar slid her body along the platform so that she was lying down on the smooth wood and, trailing her hand in the cool water she closed her eyes. 

Seeing Gabriel had brought back emotions that she thought had dissipated. Realizing that Gabriel could still get under her skin like that had annoyed and infuriated her. What did she have to do to get that guy out of her system? And the compassion she felt for Mac just made her dislike of him stronger.

And yet it wasn't hatred. That had surprised Shalimar. She didn't hate Gabriel after all he had done to her, her friends. After all that she couldn't find it within herself to hate him. Maybe it was because she empathized with his situation. She knew how hard it was living your life completely different from everyone else. She got how someone could be intoxicated by power. There were times when she had felt superior to the ordinary people around her. She figured given a different set of choices maybe she would have ended up like him. If Adam hadn't have come along and given her a reason to do good maybe she would be in Gabriel's position right now. If Adam hadn't have some along, she thought with a wry smile maybe she wouldn't be alive.

She opened her eyes as footsteps sounded behind her. She could sense the vibrations through the floor beneath her even though the said person was attempting to be as quiet as possible. They probably assumed she was asleep. They should have known better.

Shalimar rolled over as soon as she sensed that the person, whoever it was was standing right behind her. She looked up straight into the deep brown eyes of Brennan. 

He looked down at her, faint hints of surprise surfacing as she moved. He had assumed that she was napping, something that as part feline she loved to do. Plus she had had a hard day. Her nocturnal side wouldn't let her sleep straight away but it had to be catching up with her. 

He couldn't sleep…too many thoughts whizzing around inside his brain. Mutant X had encountered Gabriel again and again they had been able to do nothing, nothing that would hurt him, atleast not permanently. Everything Mutant X did to him he countered with a move of his own. It seemed impossible. 

But they had always beaten the odds before. Brennan had to believe that they would do it again. If he couldn't believe that then what was the point in trying.

He looked down at her open face. A few errant strands of hair lay across her forehead; the rest cushioned her head. She was dressed all in white and looked so at peace and so relaxed.

He sat down next to her, dangling his bare feet just inches above the water. 

'How you doing?' he asked, genuinely concerned as to her welfare. After seeing Gabriel again he didn't expect her to be perfect but he was just hoping that she wasn't completely falling apart inside. 

'I'm not sure. I guess I should be great compared to Mac; he is her brother after all but seeing him again. It was weird.' She continued to stare out over the pool and into the lab beyond. Adam had gone to bed to try and get some sleep. Overwork was not something that he needed to be suffering from right now. Shal had practically had to drag him out of the lab and to his room. She had then threatened to stand guard outside and if he so much as touched the door she was gonna kick his ass. After a while she had gotten bored and slightly uncomfortable just leaning against the wall. But Adam knew that when Shalimar said she was going to kick somebody's ass she meant it. 

Brennan looked at the feral sitting next to him. She didn't look too troubled by the events of the day and Brennan knew from experience that if Shalimar was feeling angry or sad or ecstatic there was a distinct probability that everyone would have known by now. 

Shalimar turned her head to look at Brennans. He reached out his hand and brushed an errant strand of hair away from her face. However after brushing the strand out of her eyes his hand didn't move away from her cheek. It slid around till he was cradling her face. Slowly they moved closer to each other. Their eyes slowly closed as they each recognized the dance they were taking part in. 

Shalimar's stomach had flipped over itself as soon as Brennan's hand had made contact with her skin. She didn't want him to stop moving closer and she wasn't planning on stopping her own progress but still, the knowledge that they were about to take the next step in their relationship from flirting to actually doing something was scary.

Brennan couldn't stop thinking about how complicated this could all become. They had been dancing around each other for a while. They had had moments but now there was nothing to stop them. Nobody was up and they were finally going to kiss. His stomach didn't have butterflies, more like golden eagles, he was so nervous. 

Their faces were inches from each other when suddenly the lab computers started beeping like crazy. They drew apart as if each had just been shocked by some of Brennan's electricity. Their eyes shot open and they looked at each other. Shalimar heard Adams footsteps come running down the corridor. Trust him to be up she thought with a wry smile and a sigh. One part of her was happy that the computers had interrupted them but the other wanted to smash them to pieces. Adam rounded the corner as Brennan finally relinquished his hold on Shalimar and they drew apart from each other. 

Then came Jesse and last Emma. The three youngest new mutants were still fast asleep. A busy day had left them completely worn out and they wouldn't have woken up if Sanctuary had been set alight and was in the process of burning to the ground. 

Brennan and Shalimar looked at each other, the absurdity of the situation obvious on their faces. Brennan got up and walked in the direction of the lab while Shalimar tried to compose herself enough so that she could walk without her knees buckling beneath her. That was the fourth time that had happened. Why could they not just kiss and get it over and done with? She was getting fed up of all the build-ups that ended with both of them walking away.

Brennan stopped mid-stride and turned a full 180. He started walking back to where Shalimar sat. He was so frustrated with them never crossing that line. They had been standing on it for way too long. 

Shalimar looked up just in time to have Brennan take the sides of her face in his hands and pull her mouth towards his. The kiss felt like it went on forever. All the passion, all the intensity that had built up over the past couple of months was put into that kiss. Eventually they pulled apart, each breathing deeply, unwilling to look at each other but unable to stop themselves. Their hearts were racing as they made eye contact. 

'Brennan, Shalimar. I need you guys in the lab now,' came Adams voice over their com-links. They pulled apart, unsure of what to do next. Jesse answered that question for them as he opened the door of the lab and ran off in the direction of his room. 

Shalimar was the first to start smirking. She felt like she was going to burst out laughing at the ludicrousness of the situation. It wasn't like it was the end of the world, they had only kissed. And it had been pretty damn good. Now she knew exactly why Brennan got so many women. 

Brennan looked at the blonde standing in front of him. He laughed quietly to himself wondering what all the fuss had been about. They had finally kissed and it had been great but the world hadn't imploded…nothing had gone drastically wrong just because they had finally admitted how they felt. 

Shalimar was the first to get her legs working and as she walked off she elbowed Brennan lightly in his side. She turned around and gave him a sly, suggestive smile. Brennan walked off after her, laughing and shaking his head at Shalimar's flirtatiousness but still dying to take her in his arms and kiss her as passionately as he had before.


	10. The Feral Sisterhood

'What's up Adam?' asked Shalimar as she walked in through the lab doors. 

'A group of links entered safehouse number five. They're presumably sending us a message because they set the whole place on fire,' Adam said, the frustration evident in his voice.

'Were there any new mutants in there?' asked Emma, shocked at how far Gabriel would go just to piss Mutant X off. 

'Luckily no. That safehouse had only just been re-decorated. Nobody was in there, thank God. The fire service is there already trying to calm down the blaze but I want you two to go and check it out,' he said looking at Jesse and Emma. He deliberately avoided using Shalimar for this kind of mission. She may have had to get over her fear of fire someday but throwing her in at the deep end was not the way to do that. Plus he had another job for her. 

'You think we're ever gonna beat Gabriel?' asked Emma as she closed the door to Helix. 

'I have no idea. Right now it seems pretty hopeless.'

'I guess,' she replied. Jesse may have been able to think like that but she couldn't. She had to believe that somehow they could stop Gabriel from hurting anymore people. If not for them, then atleast for Mac.  

Jesse set the Helix's flight path and then, when it was on its way looked across at Emma. Between her and Shalimar he didn't know who he felt sorrier for. Shalimar had been taken prisoner by Gabriel but Emma felt everything Gabriel felt, plus all Shalimar's emotions. He couldn't even begin to imagine how hard that must be.

Emma looked at him with a smile. 

'What?' asked Jesse.

'There's no need to feel guilty. I manage to block it all out pretty well now.'

Jesse laughed and then looked at her and nodded signaling that they were okay. 

'Leave me alone,' said Mac, trying to choke back the tears that would insist on falling. 

'Nope,' replied Shalimar masking her concern with cheerfulness.

Mac, shocked by how chirpy Shalimar sounded and at the way in which Shalimar had refused, lifted her face out of the pillow it had previously been buried in. She stared at Shalimar, who was leaning against the doorframe of Macs room. Mac was unsure of what to say. It wasn't that she was spoilt, she had just never met anyone who, when faced with the knowledge of what she could do wasn't cautious or nervous or agitated around her. Shalimar seemed completely at ease. 

She looked at the vulnerable girl sitting on the bed. Shalimar knew as well as the next person that the teenage years were the worst. The constant struggle to fit in, not to be different didn't end till you were older and realized that it didn't matter. But till then Mac would have to deal with it as best she could, there wasn't a way around it. Shal didn't feel sympathy for Mac; she felt empathy with Macs situation.

When Shal was a teenager she hadn't known how to fully control her powers or her temper (a side effect of being feral). She had gone off at random people for the smallest things and Shal knew that outwardly, unless she started kicking ass she was the same as everybody around her, which just made it more difficult for them to understand where her mood swings came from and went to. She had been confused and had had no one to talk to about any of it. 

Atleast Mac had friends, people who would understand what she was going through either because they were going through the same thing or because they already had. 

Shalimar understood Macs mistrust of people in general. She had been the same once but without the help of Mutant X Mac was gonna find it hard to fight Gabriel, not necessarily physically but emotionally. 

'You know, if you wanted to probe around inside my head you should have just asked.'

Mac blinked in surprise. How had Shalimar known? Everytime Mac had read the minds of her teachers or the other kids at school or even the random men in the bar she worked at (which, needless to say hadn't been a very pleasant experience) none of them had had a clue. 

'I live with a telempath, and believe me, you're not nearly as subtle as she is,' Shalimar said as if she was the one with the psionic abilities. She smiled at Mac as if to let her know that she meant no harm. Mac was still wary though, Shalimar could tell. So Shal walked further into the room and sat down on the bed opposite Mac. 

'You wanna read my feelings…go ahead,' Shalimar offered. 

Mac didn't know where Shal was going with this but she was still tempted to take her up on her offer. She flicked her emerald eyes up to look straight into Shalimar's chocolate ones and she was in. 

She could see Shalimar sitting in the corner of a room, her knees pulled into her chest and her head resting on her arms, which were wrapped around her bent legs. She was shaking as if crying. And then her head moved and she was looking up. The view Mac had seemed to change. It was like she was now seeing the room from Shalimar's perspective. There was Gabriel. He was stood in front of Shalimar looking at her, laughing with a ball of fire burning in his right hand. Mac was bombarded with Shalimar's terror. Mac couldn't really distinguish it from her own. It was her feral side kicking in. But she could still feel all Shalimar's anger, humiliation, pity. Mac was suddenly and without warning violently ejected from her mind.

Mac jerked visibly and sat, breathing deeply for a few minutes while she tried to regain her composure. 

'So now, do you see why you have every reason to trust me? I can't ever fully understand what you have been through or will go through but believe me, I know better than most.'

Mac stared at the strong woman sitting in front of her. She was right…she couldn't fully understand. But Mac figured she had to have someone to talk to about all the weirdness that was going on around her. 

'So, what do you people do around here for fun?'

'You don't have to jump so high when you're doing a drop kick. It just gives your opponent time to react,' called out Shalimar. Her and Mac had been sparring with each other on the dojo for 45 minutes. Mac was a feral but she had no real fighting skills. With her powers she didn't really need them but Shal figured it couldn't hurt to be prepared. Plus Mac was a quick learner and could probably use the 'lesson' to release some of her pent up frustrations. 

Mac swept her right leg along the ground, attempting to knock Shalimar off her feet. Shal jumped in a front somersault over Macs head and dropped to a crouching position as Macs fist went whistling over her head. Shalimar rolled forward and stood up, turned her head to look at Mac who, taking her chance stepped towards Shalimar and delivered a swift round kick to the air where she should have been. Mac looked around her, wondering where the feral had gone. There was a tap on her shoulder and turning around, Mac suddenly found herself flying through the air and ending up on her back. 

Shalimar smiled as she helped Mac up. 

'I don't want to be patronizing. You've got a long way to go before you can fight Gabriel with any hope of winning.'

'What makes you think I wanna fight Gabriel?' asked Mac.

Shalimar looked at the breathless girl in front of her, eyebrows raised, a smirk flickering over her lips. 

'Okay, so maybe I do…just a little,' admitted Mac. She did want to hurt Gabriel like he had hurt all the people he had ever met but more than that she wanted to talk to him. She had talked to Adam about it all and he had filled her in on what Gabriel had done since getting out of stasis. She had so many questions for him; her need for revenge had faded into the background. Not too far though. 

Shalimar handed Mac a towel and a bottle of water and then took up her own. She spotted Brennan walking towards the dojo and smiled. She still got goosebumps just thinking about kissing him. And she wasn't even sure if she could talk to anybody about it. Atleast not yet. She knew it was only a matter of time before she had to submit herself to Emma's giggles, Jesse's overprotective brother routine and Adams disapproval. Emma would be happy for them she was sure, but Jesse and Adam were a different matter entirely. Adam had never forbidden any of the members of Mutant X to have inter team relationships and she didn't expect him to start now but that didn't mean he was going to like it. It was gonna be tough but Brennan was worth it. 

She heard giggles coming from behind her. 

'Get out of my head…now!'


	11. Talking

'Hey Adam,' said Jesse into his com-ring.

'Yeah Jesse, what's going on down there?'

'Well, we're standing about 25 feet away from the burning wreck that used to be safehouse five. It's a mess Adam. Even if there were anything in there you'd be hard put to work out what it was.'

'Okay, well there's nothing more you guys can do. You may as well come back now,' replied Adam. He leant back in his chair. He couldn't believe it had all come to this.

When he had started out with Genomex it had all been so perfect. He had been so in awe of Paul Breedlove and the whole idea of working for the government and saving lives had intoxicated him. He had never expected anything bad to happen. He had never dreamed that his experiments, his findings could be used to ruin people's lives. He didn't blame Gabriel for wanting revenge on the people who had made him the way he was but he couldn't allow Gabriel to hurt anymore people. 

Adam sighed and, with plenty of effort sat forward. He rubbed his eyes to try and wake himself up a little and then began typing.

'Hey.'

Mac looked up as she walked round the stairs in the main room of Sanctuary. Alex and Maia were sitting and lying respectively on the dojo. They had settled in surprisingly well. Alex had always been able to adapt to pretty much any environment due to his laid-back nature and Maia, although slightly more curious than he was had done enough exploring to make her secure in Sanctuary. 

'Hey,' Mac replied quietly. She walked up the dojo steps, unwilling to talk about what had happened the previous day. She had already shared all the information she wanted to with Shalimar. And she had to keep some sense of privacy in among all the chaos that was her life. 

She sat down, with her back against the sloping walls of the dojo. She closed her eyes and breathed a deep sigh. She hadn't slept well that night, too much to think about. She was physically and mentally drained from the fight the day before and from the fact that she had finally met Gabriel. But though her body was perfectly willing to sleep her mind still wouldn't let her. She had talked to Shalimar about Gabriel but she needed to talk to someone else to find out what exactly Gabriel wanted. And what exactly could be done to stop him from getting it.

'Adam?'

He looked up from the computer monitor he had been absorbed in. Mac still looked tired, not surprising really after everything she had been through. But she looked more shy and curious than anything. Adam smiled at her to show that she could come in a little further.

She padded over to him. She had been lent some clothes by Shalimar, the closest in height and build to Mac. Her hair had been let down and hung lankly around her face. Despite her tiredness her eyes sparkled. 

She walked up to the bed in the middle of the room and pushed herself up onto it. Her arms didn't have a whole lot of strength in them. But then none of her limbs felt like they were functioning properly. And she couldn't focus real well. Her eyes kept on drifting around her as she attempted to take everything in. 

'What were my parents like?' she asked after a short pause. She had spoken so quietly she wasn't sure if he had heard her or not and she opened her mouth to prompt him but then he spoke.

'Good people; friends of mine. When they came to me I thought I was doing them a favour by helping Gabriel. Like most of the parents that were involved in Genomex's experiments they thought what they were doing was for the best; they thought they were helping Gabriel.'

Adam turned around and started typing stuff into the computer. Almost instantly two profiles were drawn up onto the monitor. One showed a woman, in her late 30's, early 40's. She had dark brown hair and eyes, tanned skin and bee-stung lips. The other profile showed a caucasian male; sandy coloured, short hair, blue eyes and a strong bone structure. Her brow furrowed, she didn't recognize them, they weren't the people that had been in the Genomex computers as Gabriel's parents. It wasn't even the photos that were different. Their personal details were changed too. 

'I understand your confusion.'

She looked at him, the cogs whirring within her brain, trying to work out all the confusion, trying to remove the mist that seemed to have blocked the path between her and knowledge. 

'There was information that was never placed in the Genomex files. That's why Gabriel didn't know and possibly still doesn't. And that's why you never found out. The two people that Gabriel killed when he was ten were not his parents. They weren't your parents either.'

It took a while for Mac to digest the information. This was huge. It was unbelievable. She had spent her entire life (or atleast her life after she had figured out how to use a computer) thinking that her parents had been killed by her own brother. It was a horrible lie, one that had tortured her for years but now that she knew the truth what the hell was she supposed to do? How the hell was she supposed to react?

'Why did they give him up?'

Adam turned around in the chair he was sitting on. 

'They found out what he was capable of. They knew that they couldn't handle it and so gave him up to another family; a family that had volunteered for the job. Then Toni got pregnant again and we all thought you would be okay; we all thought you would be well.'

The tears pricked at her eyes. She had held it all in for so long that there was no stopping it…the flood gates were gonna open whether she wanted it or not. She blinked and the tears spilled over the edges of her eyelids and ran down her cheeks. She wiped them away as soon as they appeared but Adam wasn't stupid; far from it. He got up from his chair, walked over to the bed and sat down next to Mac. Putting his arm across her shoulders she leant her head into him. They sat there for a full half hour. 

Eventually Macs tears subsided. She lifted her head from Adams shoulder and breathed deeply. 

'Thanks.'

'What for?' This time it was Adams turn to be confused. What could Mac possibly want to thank him for? He had ruined her life by experimenting on Gabriel; by playing God with Gabriel and with all the other children of Genomex. 

'For telling me the truth. You and I both know that eventually I'll have to know exactly what happened to my real parents. But for now it can wait.' She smiled at him. He had helped her more than he could know. Honesty meant a lot to her.


	12. Love and Kidnappings

I haven't posted anything in a while due to the enormous amount of coursework I've had over the past couple of weeks. Sorry about that. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I wrote it while I was supposed to be doing said coursework. 

Thank you as always to all the people who have reviewed my fiction. I do appreciate it…please continue to do so. To those who haven't reviewed I hope its not cos you hate the story…just cos you're lazy (I know that feeling well)

Have a nice day.

Gabriel watched from the rooftop. The sky was dark above him, the occasional star glinting in the heavens. The night air was crisp and he could hear the faint murmur of the city from behind him. 

Across the street, in the third floor apartment building sat a family of four. They were eating at a square table. The room was well lit and they looked happy. Gabriel almost envied them…almost. What was about to happen was gonna change all their lives. 

He smiled at the thought of what their faces would look like; what their emotions, their thoughts would look like. He could almost hear the screams of anguish, the never-ending sobs. He smiled and nodded at a shadowy figure on the rooftop opposite him. So far the plan was working perfectly. Mutant X involvement was at an all time low, presumably they hadn't found out what he had taken from the school computers. 

And if they had, by now they were too late to stop what was about to happen.

Brennan turned the yellowed page of the leather bound book. He was sitting on the floor, his back leaning against the wall, long legs stretched out in front of him. He looked up as he heard the laughter and groans of the three teenagers sparring on the dojo. They had been at it for atleast an hour and showed no signs of giving up yet. 

He smiled remembering the fun he had had when he had joined Mutant X. He had loved fighting especially when he got to use his abilities. It wasn't that he didn't have fun now, especially not when he fought with Shalimar. It was just that things over the past couple of weeks had gotten a whole lot more serious what with Gabriel running around all over the place causing trouble. Brennan let out a small laugh. He made it sound like Gabriel was some sort of rebellious child making mischief. When in reality he was far from it. Brennan remembered how he had hurt Shalimar. The smile left his face. 

He looked to his left as someone rounded a corner in the hallway. His entire face lit up as he recognized who it was. He knew he probably looked like a goofy teenager but he didn't really care. 

'What you reading?' she asked dropping down next to him, crossing her legs in front of her.

'Walt Whitman.'

'The one we gave you?'

'Yeah.'

She nodded and leant her head back against the smooth wall behind her. She closed her eyes, relaxing almost immediately. She had been sparring with Mac, Alex and Maia for a while and needed a rest. They were energetic, and though she could take all of them if she really wanted to, teaching and going slower than she was used to was hard. They may have been quick learners but patience was definitely not a virtue that she had.

Brennan looked over at Shalimar's face. She was glowing with perspiration and her lips curved upwards at the corners as she became lost in her own thoughts. She was so damn sexy that suddenly his book lost all interest for him. He sat there staring, not caring that he was and unable to stop. 

Her eyes slowly opened and she turned her head to look at him. She leant into his face and their second kiss was just as sweet as the first. It became more passionate as her hand drew up his back and up to the back of his head. His book fell to floor, long forgotten as he was completely drawn in. His arm wrapped around her waist.

And then they heard them. Emma and Jesse had just gotten back from their mission and they were walking straight towards Shalimar and Brennan. Not wanting to stop the couple drew apart and, with a sly smile at each other stood quickly and ran straight towards Brennan's room. Shalimar slid the door open quickly and Brennan silently closed it behind them. 

'Hey Adam,' Emma said as her and Jesse walked into the lab. Their mission had been a complete bust and it was an understatement to say that all three were frustrated. And worried. Gabriel probably knew more about the safe house system than most new mutants and now he was hitting them hard by burning them to the ground. Even the GSA had been a little more subtle. 

'So, what's our next move?' asked Jesse.

'I honestly don't know. Gabriel's unpredictable, he has no scruples, who knows what he'll do next.'

'So I guess we just keep an eye out for any more activity, huh?'

'Yeah,' Adam said with a sigh. 

Emma looked at him. She didn't even need to read him right now. She could tell how guilty he felt and she wished she could make him feel better but sending him happier feelings would be crossing boundaries that she had worked long and hard to set for herself. 

When she hadn't had a real good handle on her powers it had been easier for her to probe around in anyone's mind at any time. But now that she knew exactly what she was doing with them (until they evolved atleast) searching through people's private emotions was immoral and wrong. She understood that and she most definitely wouldn't want to abuse the team's trust like that. 

But that didn't mean she wasn't tempted sometimes. 

Jesse didn't know what to do. One part of him wanted to kill Ashlocke for everything he had done to Mutant X, especially Shalimar. He had hurt her and Jesse would never allow him to do that again. He knew Shal could handle herself but that didn't mean that he didn't want to protect her. She was his sister…one of his best friends and he just wanted to help her. Even now Gabriel was getting to her. He was still in her head and he needed to know that she had the strength to fight him. 

Her eyes fluttered open and she murmured slightly as she rolled over on the bed. She felt the skin of her fingers make contact with somebody else and her eyes opened a whole lot wider. In her sleepy state she couldn't really remember where she was or how she had gotten there or, more importantly what she had done when she had first got there. And then her memory seemed to start functioning properly and the flashbacks hit in full blast. 

The passionate kisses…the hands groping at clothes…the whispered words…the breath on each other's skin. And they hadn't even been drunk. 

Shal lifted her head off the pillow and slowly rolled over onto her back. She stared at the ceiling feeling completely awkward. Why had they not been able to control themselves? What the hell was wrong with her? Kissing Brennan had been bad enough…not that he was a bad kisser, far from it but that wasn't the point. And now it was pretty damn certain that they could never go back to being just friends.

What if they had just selfishly split up Mutant X? What would the others think when they found out that her and Brennan had…

And they would so find out. Mac knew about the kiss due to her lack of control over her abilities. She was bound to find out about this. And Shal knew that Emma would never intentionally read her feelings but what if they broadcast it so loudly that she had no choice.

Shalimar closed her eyes. She needed time to think about this whole situation. 

She slid out from beneath the covers and, pulling one of Brennan's shirts on began the search for her own clothes. Silence was one of her gifts and right now she was particularly glad of it. 

Having found everything she could (she was missing a sock) she sneaked into Brennans en suite bathroom. 

Brennan stirred in the bed. His brain clouded in the haze of sleepiness. He reached his hand up to rub the sleep from his eyes so he would be able to see a little clearer. A lazy smile spread itself across his face as he remembered the night before. 

It had been amazing, completely mind-blowing. And at that exact point in time he didn't care who knew. He wanted to tell the rest of Mutant X…hell, he wanted to tell the rest of the world.

He heard the buzz of the air-conditioning in the bathroom gradually get louder as the door opened. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and watched as Shalimar walked through the doorway. She looked stunning, her blonde hair creating a halo around her head, her skin glowing, her eyes sparkling. 

He looked at her, the same lazy smile on his face. She looked back at him all of her previous reservations flying right out of the window. She walked over to the bed and leant down. She kissed him gently on the lips and then, just as she made a move as if to pull away he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her on top of him.

'Hi,' he said huskily.

'Hi,' she replied before kissing him again. 

'Shalimar, Brennan. Where the hell are you guys?'

They stared at each other wryly. Why did they always have to get interrupted at the worst moments…or possibly the best depending on the point of view. 

'Coming.'

'Gabriel struck another of our safehouses. Except this time it was the Trents apartment.'

'What the hell happened Adam?' asked Jesse. He was frustrated that Gabriel knew exactly where the Mutant X safehouses were and that he felt no scruples in hitting them all. He knew he shouldn't have expected anything less from a sociopath. 

'He abducted, after beating her up for a bit the girl we placed in the Trents care a couple of months ago.'

'Sara Bagent, the elemental psionic mix?' asked Emma.

'Yes. She has the ability to create electrical fields and being a telekinetic can move them and objects, even people into them.'

'Pretty unique then,' said Shalimar.

'Yeah, and we have to get her back soon. God only knows what Gabriel is going to do with her.'


	13. Sara and the bad guys

As always I have to apologize for the lack of updates. Loads of work etc. 

Hope y'all enjoy this chapter. I've actually managed to get round to the real plot…yay for me. 

Please review. 

Have a nice day.

'What do you want with me?' She had been screaming and shouting herself hoarse for atleast an hour. Nobody seemed to be listening and if they did they didn't appear to care. She looked around her, taking a break from destroying her throat. 

She was chained to a chair in the middle of a huge room, what she could see of it anyway. It didn't smell too bad, wasn't freezing cold and wasn't even that dark. She could see a faint light in large rectangles. They were windows, with thick blinds pulled over them. She could even hear faint noise in the background. Presumably the people outside the room, the ones holding her hostage didn't care. 

She tried to move her hand to try and feel the bruise that was gradually developing on her forehead from where she had been punched but she had forgotten the chains. She relaxed, knowing that she could do nothing. All the struggling had made her feel weak. 

The door opened and a shaft of light flooded into the room. It shone into her eyes which had gotten so used to the darkness that they stung. She squinted, not wanting to close her eyes for a second, giving whoever the person was the chance to do something to her. 

A figure came through the door and walked across the floor round to the back of the chair. A sharp pain flowed through her head as the person grabbed her hair and pulled her head backwards, straining her neck. She let out a cry and tears sprang to her eyes. 

Looking up she saw the face of her captor. Her eyes opened wide as she recognized the face. She remembered him. He was the guy who had been at the school a couple of days ago. That day had been so weird and when Mac, Maia and Alex had left she had wanted to go with them. But she had looked across at Jesse and he had made signals that she should stay. They had worked hard to put her in the underground and she would always be grateful. She didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize that. 

But she had unwittingly hurt not only Mutant X (she knew eventually they would come looking for her) but her foster family as well. They were the only family that had ever really accepted her for who she was. She had loved them like they were her real family.  And now it was all gone.

Gabriel looked down at her face. He fed off her feelings of sadness and anger. They were so weak he almost felt sick. That was why he loved toying with Shalimar. Whatever he had thrown at her she had thrown it right back into his face with just as much force. Her sadness, her anger, her pain had always been so much more intense. But this pitiful girl had something Shalimar didn't, something he needed. 

Shalimar stared through the shattered window. In the alley below she could see the shards of glass and tiny splinters of wood from the frame of the window. 

Sara had only been with the Trent's for a couple of months but they had accepted her as one of their own and were heartbroken that she had been abducted. 

Shalimar sniffed. She could smell Gabriel all over the apartment and his scent was floating around in the air outside. But it wasn't just her sense of smell that told her he had been there. She could sense him in other ways.

Ever since he had first gotten into her head she had been able to feel him all around her. It was like they had a telepathic/telempathic link. And it didn't matter whether he was still there or had been there five days ago. The length of time simply determined how strong the feeling was. 

He had definitely been here. 

'We need to know absolutely everything about what happened.'

Shal heard Adams voice waft across the room and mix with the sounds of the city. He had been comforting the family for half an hour, the Trent's were good friends of his and he wanted to make sure that they were okay before he made them relive the experience. The rest of the team had been checking the other rooms of the apartment while Shal checked the kitchen/dining room for clues. Adam had just begun to question Melissa and John Trent (their own daughter Nadine was still too scared) and he was trying to get as much information from them as possible. 

Suddenly movement on the rooftop opposite the building Mutant X was in caught her eye. She growled quietly under her breath and lifted her leg to step onto the outer ledge of the window. 

'Shalimar?' Jesse said as he entered the room. What the hell was she doing? Adam looked up from where he was sitting on the edge of the coffee table just in time to see Shalimar make the 15-foot jump from the window ledge to the roof opposite. 

Hearing the commotion Brennan and Emma ran in from one of the bedrooms and the bathroom respectively. Brennan ran across to the window and looked over. He could see Shalimar in a defensive stance and then she dropped to a crouching position as an anonymous persons leg flew over her head. 

Brennan climbed out onto the ledge and then boosted himself with his shiny, new abilities from it to the roof. He landed next to Shalimar as she flipped herself over her own head and managed to kick the anonymous guy to the floor. He landed on his back and Shalimar leaped through the air to land with one of her feet resting heavily on his chest. 

'Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?' she said loudly whilst applying pressure to his chest. 

Keeping silent the guy glared at her.  

'You don't wanna talk? See and now I feel all un-loved,' she joked as she kicked him in his side. He let out a loud grunt and tried to roll over but Shalimar was keeping him pinned to the ground. Brennan walked over to the two of them and taking a hold on Shalimar's arm stopped her from completely caving the guys skull in. She always was inpatient he thought with a glint in his eye. 

'We should get him over to Emma or vice versa. I'm pretty sure she can get some information out of him without having to kill him in the process.'

Shalimar smirked as she lifted her foot of his chest. She bent down and lifted him off the floor so he was standing on his feet. At that Jesse and Adam burst through the door from the floor below. 

Brennan slowly eased Shalimar's hands off the guys clothes and handed him over to Jesse signaling that they should take him away before Shalimar really lost all her patience.


	14. Coffee and Pine Trees

Sorry it has been so long since I posted a chapter but I had writers block and then revision and then a whole load of coursework and then I went to Rome for the week...not that I'm making excuses or anything.   
Anyway here it is. I'm finally managing to get some action in. I don't really do a lot of action cos I'm not brilliant at writing for it but its Mutant X so what am I gonna do?  
Hope you all enjoy. Please review, haven't gotten many for my last few chapters so here's hoping.   
Have a nice day.   
  
Jesse lay back on his bed. Shalimar may have had boundless energy, especially at night but he really needed his sleep. He was tired more emotionally than physically. Dealing with Gabriel always left him with some pretty mixed emotions.   
He looked at the ceiling, completely drained. Adam was still trying to find Sara. The information Emma had gotten out of the guy on the rooftop had been a complete bust. She had found out about a house in the middle of the suburbs and they had all headed straight there. But it had been deserted by the time they had reached it. Gabriel had a psionic bond with all of the Links. They should have known that he would know what was going on before it even happened. And nobody knew where she could have gone. Her, Gabriel and the Strand had just disappeared off the face of the planet. Adam had tried all his contacts but as yet nothing had turned up. They were all getting pretty desperate.   
Jesse was worried about the girl. She was only seventeen. Gabriel was scary enough to him and he had his powers (until they evolved again) pretty much under control. At seventeen he remembered how scared he had been of the world and himself. Sara couldn't have been faring much better. And now Gabriel wanted her for something...God only knew what.   
Jesse closed his eyes and despite the fear he felt for Sara he couldn't keep himself awake any longer. His mind slipped into darkness and he was asleep.   
  
Emma's eyes closed slowly as she drifted off into her own world of emotions and thoughts. It was two o'clock in the morning and she could sense Shalimar prowling around. She could feel the untamed wildness as Shalimar in her own way gave in to her mutant side. She could feel the contented peacefulness of Jesse and Brennan, both sleeping soundly. She could sense Adam, closer than everyone else. He was working in the lab as per usual.   
The information they had gained from the link at the Trent's building had been pretty much useless. He had believed that Sara was at a house out in the suburbs being held there by atleast four members of the Strand. He had been telling the truth so the team had gone out to check the house and, if they could bring Sara back to safety.   
But Gabriel's telepathic link to the new mutants who worked for him was clearly stronger than any of them had thought. By the time they had gotten to the house it had been cleared out. Nothing was left, not a scrap of furniture, just dust.  
Emma couldn't even sense Sara. It had been hard before when she had tried. Her and Sara had never really met each other. That always made it that bit harder. It seemed that Gabriel was blocking her signal. He was so powerful that much as she had tried she had not been able to break through his barriers.   
The thoughts started to move slower as she gradually drifted off into sleep.   
  
Adam was typing furiously. He had to find where Gabriel was hiding out before they lost another new mutant to him. Her powers were impressive and Adam didn't know exactly what Gabriel was going to use them for but it had to be bad and not just for Sara.   
And yet again, he blamed himself. If he had never started working for Genomex then none of this would be happening. Sara wouldn't have been kidnapped, Gabriel wouldn't have been able to cause so much pain. He wouldn't have hurt Shalimar so much... everything was just so messed up.   
But as he had been told so many times before by the younger members of Mutant X he had to learn when to let go, when to stop blaming himself for everything he did in his past. He understood the logic behind what they were saying but that didn't make it any easier to forgive himself or to forget.  
  
Maia walked along the corridor which housed all of the bedrooms in Sanctuary. She was at a slight loss as to what to do. Mutant X were working on this new case. Maia had seen Gabriel and atleast some of what he could do and she knew Sara in passing but she was no expert on new mutants or saving the world and figured it would be easier for everybody to get on with important stuff if she stayed out of the way.   
Alex and Mac had gone off on one of their exclusive feral adventures. She didn't mind that they had stopped inviting her on these, it wasn't like she could keep up with them without her powers anyway. And if she chose to use her super-speed then she outran them by miles. Ever since they had discovered that they were both members of this huge feral family they had grown closer. She couldn't help but feel a little left out. And there was no one else like her in Sanctuary. Even Jesse, a molecular like her was still so totally different. Nobody really knew what she was going through. Or atleast that was how it felt.   
She walked slowly up the steps leading to the dojo and sat down with her back against the smooth walls. She had always loved just sitting up there, observing everything that went on around her, listening to all the sounds in Sanctuary, he occasional beeps of machinery, the calming noise of the water. She had always been like that ever since she was a child, constantly curious about her surroundings. It had driven her parents wild. She wondered how they were doing. They weren't her real parents, her mother had died in child birth and her father had run off when he had realized the gravity of what was happening to his daughter. She had the feeling that the influence of his always eager to please secretary had had something to do with it. She had been placed with a foster family but they had been so good and kind to her that she had stuck with them. Adam had contacted them when she had first turned up at Sanctuary and although they were worried they understood why she had to be there, atleast for a short while.   
She wished none of this had ever happened. She wished that she was back at school and that Gabriel and the Strand had never come. She wished that everything could go back to the way it was before, when her life was that bit more ordinary. She had always known that her life was going to be extraordinary but she figured that if she kept her weirdness to herself she could retain some semblance of normality.   
She was drawn out of her thoughts by the sound of footsteps. She looked down the stairs and saw Jesse walking towards her. He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts and she giggled when he looked up at her in suprise. He smiled at her and walked absentmindedly up the steps to the dojo. He sat down heavily on the top step and sighed.   
'How's it going in there?'  
'Its not going too badly...its not going too well either but Adam seems to think we're on the verge of finding something.'  
Maia looked at the scuffed toes of her sneakers, deep in thought mostly about how Sara must be feeling. She couldn't imagine being held captive, by yourself with no help on the horizon. It was bleak but that must have been going through Sara's head at some point.   
'Is she gonna be okay?' Maia asked quietly.  
Jesse turned around and looked straight into her eyes. 'We're gonna try and make sure of that.'  
She nodded her head gently a couple of times, still thinking.   
'So, how are you doing?' asked Jesse, trying to change the subject from such melancholy thoughts. He hadn't really had much of a chance to talk to any of the teenagers due to the whole Sara thing and figured that this was as good a chance as he was gonna get any time soon.  
'Not bad.' Maia had been desperate to find someone who would understand what she was going through but now that the opportunity had presented itself she found that she was shy and a little nervous.   
'You feeling left out?'  
She looked at Jesse. He was smiling a wry smile that put her slightly more at ease.   
'A little. Mac and Alex don't mean to leave me out and I get that they have to come to terms with their own mutancy in their own way but...I don't know. It just feels like we're drifting...' She came to a stop unsure what else she could say. She looked at Jesse expecting to find a look of complete bewilderment and confusion on his face but instead she found one of understanding.   
'I get what you mean. When Brennan and Emma first joined Mutant X I guess I felt kind of useless. You know?' Maia nodded. 'Both myself and Emma felt like we were always the ones who did the researchy stuff and then Shal and Brennan got to go off and do the actual work. But then, gradually and believe me, it took some time I got used to the fact that I could help, that I wasn't just tagging along with missions. I may not have the flashy powers of Brennan, I may not be as aggressive as Shalimar but I pull my weight. You may have to wait a while but eventually you will feel like you fit in, you'll realize that you are just as worthy as everybody else.'   
Jesse suddenly stood up and stretched his arms above his head trying to stretch the kinks out of his joints.   
'You wanna help me get supplies for the troops?' he asked with an open smile.   
'Sure.'   
  
'Coffee!' Shalimar said with enthusiasm. She was tired and needed to sleep but knew that if she lay down she would just spend the rest of the night tossing and turning and wondering, wondering what was happening to Sara and how they should be helping her but couldn't.   
The lab door closed behind Maia as she brought in a tray with six mugs of steaming coffee on it. She was happy to help, glad to be given something to do no matter how menial.   
Adam didn't even notice that anybody had entered the room until Shalimar's outcry. He turned around and was happy to see that Maia was with Jesse. He had been meaning to talk to her sensing that she might need a chat but hadn't had time what with Sara's disappearance. It appeared that her and Jesse had talked and it left Adam feeling relieved. But he still had a lot to worry about. He still didn't know where Gabriel was, or why he wanted Sara and it was getting more and more frustrating by the minute.   
Emma accepted her coffee with a smile. Her head was aching from receiving all of the emotions of every person in the immediate vicinity. Her defenses always became a little weaker when she was tired and right now she was beyond tired, she was exhausted. But like everybody else she couldn't afford to rest. She couldn't afford to stop looking for information, couldn't afford to stop telempathically searching no matter how hopeless. She had to carry on for Sara's sake.  
  
Mac jumped over the fallen tree log and landed lightly on her feet on the other side, next to Alex. They had been running through the woods around Sanctuary for hours now. And neither of them were even breathing heavily yet. This feral thing had turned out to be pretty cool.   
Alex looked around him. He was never one for thinking about the beauty of landscapes but this view was a good one. There were trees as far as the eye could see, all of them stretching up into the sky. The carpet of the wood was covered in bits of tree bark, roots of trees and the occasional evergreen bush. The smell of grass and fresh air (something, living in the city he didn't get a whole lot of) bombarded his nostrils. Being canine feral his sense of smell was definitely his most powerful.   
Mac's head twisted round quickly to look behind her. She had been uneasy for a while, sensing that they were being watched. At first she had put it down to being in a new environment, and she figured her feral powers were probably playing on the fact that she was a little nervous because of Gabriel. But now there was no denying it. Something was out there and it would not be pleasant if it managed to catch up with them.   
She nudged Alex in the ribs lightly, trying to get his attention. He had been preoccupied with a familiar scent. He didn't know where he had smelt it before but he got that it probably shouldn't be there.   
They both looked at each other, the panic evident in their eyes. They both took off as fast as they could into the trees knowing that their only hope lay in running until they got to Sanctuary.   
Split seconds after they took off, ten new mutants burst through the trees and bushes and sped off after them.   
Branches tore at Mac and Alex's clothes and scratched the skin on their faces leaving tracks of blood as the pair rushed on through the wood, trying to remember, without having to stop, where exactly Sanctuary was. Thanks to their feral powers they could keep running for quite some time but eventually they were going to have to stop and knowing that they couldn't possibly hide from the predators behind them they had no idea what they could do. Keep going was the obvious answer, but for how long?  
Annie walked out from behind a tree and watched as the links took off after the two teenagers. She had been   
given strict instructions to capture the girl and if necessary kill the boy. He was useless to Gabriel. But Annie had her own agenda. She wanted to impress Gabriel, she wanted to be the dominant female in the Strand for good. Her position was in constant jeopardy. Gabriel got bored easily and she intended to keep him interested.   
'The kids went with Adam's people,' she thought aloud. 'So, they have to have come from wherever it is that Mutant X have been hiding out.' She laughed to herself. Her plan was so perfect, she couldn't believe that Gabriel hadn't thought of it himself. She would let them lead her to Sanctuary.   
She smiled as she walked off into the depth of the wood to intercept Mac and Alex.   
  
Mac and Alex came to a halt in a clearing. The trees had previously created some kind of ceiling for them but now there was nothing above. They felt exposed, like they had nowhere to hide. Not that that would have done any good. They would have been found anyway.   
They both spun round at the same time hearing the links approach the clearing and then come out into the open. They were surrounded with nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. They had only one option left to them. They both took up a defensive stance as the links crowded closer around them. 


	15. If you go down to the woods today

If anyone has any suggestions as to what I should do next they would be appreciated. Its not that I'm necessarily having a case of writers block its just that exams are coming up and much as I don't want I may not have enough time to update regularly, if at all. So any ides that can get me started on a quick chapter here and there would be great.   
As always, thank you to those who have been reading and reviewing. I haven't gotten many reviews so I'm not sure if any of you out there like the story so far. (yes, I am attempting to get sympathy feedback.)  
Anyhow, hope y'all enjoy.   
Have a nice day  
  
Mac ducked to the ground just in time to see a bolt of electricity go crackling over her head. It shot straight into the chest of the new mutant opposite and he flew backwards, rebounding off of a huge tree in the process. Mac and Alex winced at the sound of his head making contact with the trunk and then the ground.  
This action seemed to set the spark to the gas and all of the new mutants, seeing their fallen comrade decided to all start fighting at once.  
Mac executed a perfect back somersault out of the circle attracting the attention of five Links. They turned around to face her while the other five took on Alex. Punches were thrown, kicks were taken by both sides but Mac and Alex, powerful though they were, were nowhere near as technically skilled as Mutant X and the numbers game was starting to catch up with them. Mac took a right hook to the side of her head. It knocked her to the ground and then she remembered that she wasn't just feral. All the training that had been taking place in Sanctuary over the past couple of days had been feral or just plain martial arts stuff. She hadn't, as yet trained using her elemental, psionic or molecular powers.   
The elemental stuff she had gotten a handle on pretty early on, and it was ditto for her psionic powers. But she had never learnt how to control her molecular thing. But right now she didn't need to. She didn't plan on taking the defensive position in this fight. She stood up and felt the energy racing through her veins. She raised her hand up to her eye level and recognized that familiar buzz as the energy, that was always inside of her came to the surface. The light blue electricity flickered across her entire hand. By then all of the new mutants in the clearing were watching her, including Alex. He had never seen her use any of her other powers and he was impressed.   
The links started to make their move forward trying to stop her before she released the energy on them. But they were too late. The electricity flew from her hand and hit the chest of the new mutant who had punched her in the head seconds before. Then the sparks engulfed her hand and she swung at the two other new mutants, ferals that Alex had been fighting. They went flying through the air and hit the ground with plenty of force. Alex rugby tackled another new mutant to the ground and headbutted him, causing him to lose consciousness.   
Alex and Mac looked at each other. They were both tired and needed to get to some sort of safety. They took off running into the cover of the trees again, hoping that their offense had stalled the links long enough for them to get far enough away.   
They carried on running until they were forced to come to a complete stop. They had reached a river. A river that was at the bottom of a 40 foot drop. They turned to look into each others eyes and then whipped round as they heard the sound of branches cracking as the links ran to catch up with them.  
There was only one thing for it, they thought as they took a hold of each others hand. They stepped back a couple of paces from the edge and then ran forward and with a loud cry they disappeared over the edge.   
  
'Hey Adam,' called Jesse. 'I think I might have found something.'  
They had been researching for a further half an hour and up till that point had turned up nothing new. Adam was beyond frustrated and even Shalimar was getting tired. When Jesse called Adam over a ripple of hope spread through the room, it was infectious. Everybody breathed in, waiting to see if Jesse had found anything worthwhile.   
'Its a warehouse in the industrial district, just a couple of miles away from where we first went looking,' said Jesse tentatively. Everybody in the room was still holding their breath.   
'I want you all to get in Helix now. We don't have a lot of time,' Adam said urgently.   
Everybody stood up quickly. Shalimar was desperate to get out of Sanctuary. She had been stuck there for too long. Brennan was just happy to be getting some action and Emma was concerned about Sara. Jesse's first thought was what Maia was going to do. He knew she would want to help but wasn't sure if it was safe to take her with them. But then again, if Sara saw a familiar face maybe she would freak out a little less. He turned to Adam.  
'Maia, if you're not too scared to go with them, I think Sara may need someone to get her out of there quickly,' said Adam.  
Maia looked up and, after a seconds thought jumped off her seat and jogged out of the doorway to get some shoes on.  
Jesse looked across at Adam with a smile and then followed.   
  
Mac looked around her, her eyes burning a bright orange. Both her and Alex had landed safely but they now had to work out a direction to go in in the space of a few seconds, they couldn't afford any longer than that. She knew that the other ferals atleast would be able to drop the 40foot. And they would be pissed off. Her eyes flicked all around her trying to make out anyone who might have been standing in the trees around them, ready to ambush them at any point. She grabbed Alex's hand and they ran again.  
Annie watched them from her vantage point in the trees. Mac may have been a pretty powerful feral but Annie had been one longer and knew exactly how to stop anyone from seeing, hearing or sensing her. She knew they were lost but this forest was only so big and after a while they had to come out somewhere. And when they did, they would lead her straight to Sanctuary. She took off, stealthily making her way after them.   
  
Shalimar flipped the controls on the Helix and they went into stealth mode. They had only just flown out of the hangar in Sanctuary and Adam was downloading, from the computer in Sanctuary the coordinates of the warehouse. She flipped some more controls and the aircraft slowly swung round to face back over the cliffs and towards the city.   
Maia had only been in Helix once and then she hadn't really been concentrating on its interior. She looked around her now, taking in everything she saw with wide eyes. It looked very clean but kind of dark. She couldn't explain it. There were lights on but the gleam that they emitted seemed to be absorbed into the walls. She liked it, it felt safe and secure. And Shalimar was a good pilot.  
Brennan sat in the front of Helix with Shalimar. He looked across at her as she programmed in their destination and then switched the controls onto auto-pilot. She sat back, relaxing or trying to as she watched the world pass by below them. Suddenly her brow puckered and she leant forward in her seat.   
'What's up?' he asked quietly, expecting her to brush him off, like she always did when anyway expressed concern.   
Without saying a word she pushed the buttons on the control panel allowing herself to gain command of Helix once again.   
'You all strapped in back there?' she asked the urgency in her voice making them all sit up.  
'Why? What's going on?' asked Emma.  
'We're making a quick stop. Anybody have a problem with that?'  
They all shook their heads and she took them into a dive, straight towards the ground. Maia wasn't panicking, but she was close. She didn't mind planes but this was a whole other kind of plane. She knew Shalimar probably knew what she was doing but that didn't make it a whole lot better. It didn't change the fact that they were plummeting towards the earth.  
  
Mac stopped and looked up in the middle of yet another clearing. Her feral hearing had picked up some buzzing. In the city that noise was not so unusual but in the middle of a forest... She wasn't sure what it was and she didn't really wanna wait to find out.   
'What is it?' asked Alex from behind her. They had been running for five minutes after the drop off of the cliff. So far he couldn't pick up anyone following them, which could only be a good thing but he really didn't think they should be stopping to enjoy the view or listen to the sound of the birds in the trees and wait for the right direction to come along and jump up and down on top of them. They had to keep moving. And then he felt it, right in front of him. The grass moved as if being blown by a strong gust of wind and the leaves whispered all around them. He could feel his hair being blown lightly back from his face.   
They both gasped in shock when they saw the Double Helix appear right in front of their eyes. The door opened and they saw Brennan and Maia both yelling at them to run.   
Annie ran a little faster when she heard the voices of Mutant X. Either she had reached Sanctuary or Mutant X had showed up to help their little friends. She came out into the clearing as the Helix disappeared into thin air. She watched the patch of sky where it had previously been and then slammed her fist into the nearest tree. She couldn't believe she had lost both the teenagers and hadn't even found Sanctuary. Gabriel was going to be pissed she thought, dread building up in the pit of her stomach. 


	16. Second chances

Shalimar switched the Helix, for the second time that day onto auto-pilot. She twisted round in her seat and looked on as Mac and Alex told Maia every little detail about their adventure. How they had flipped and kicked and punched and jumped their way out of danger.   
She remembered the first time she had gone up against the guards at the Genomex compound, before the GSA existed. When she had gotten back to Sanctuary after completing her mission there had been no one to share that excitement with. She had told Adam all the details, yes but there had been nobody she could have really told, like Mac and Alex were doing now. She remembered going to sleep that night and feeling empty. Victories were only victories when you could share them with others.   
Her memory moved on a little way to when Jesse had shown up. They had gone out on their first mission together and all the way home in the Helix they had re-enacted it like teenagers, practically bouncing off the walls.   
Brennan had been talking to Adam, letting him know what happened through all of the chatter. He looked up and saw Shalimar watching it all. He made his way to the front of the ship and sat down in his seat, next to Shalimar's.   
'You okay?'  
'Yeah, just thinking.'  
They looked at each other and both realized that the time had come to have the 'where is this going?' talk.   
But they never got the chance.   
'Does one of you maybe wanna land the plane? Cos we're here,' Jesse called from the back. They had been staring at each other for a while and he and Emma had both been sharing knowing smiles. Brennan and Shalimar obviously thought it was all a secret from the rest of Mutant X.   
'How dense do they think we are?' he asked in hushed tones.  
Emma giggled and then abruptly stopped as Shalimar turned around, a questioning look on her face.   
'Whatever,' she said as she turned back round to navigate the plane down to ground level.   
They had landed approximately five minutes away from the warehouse and now had to figure out their next plan of action.   
'Its no good us just storming in there,' said Emma, looking across at Shalimar knowing that was exactly what she wanted to do.   
'What else can we do? If Gabriel's in that building there is a 50/50 chance that he already knows we're here and is running or getting ready to fight right now,' declared Shalimar. She desperately wanted to get her hands on Gabriel. She no longer cared if he killed her in the process just so long as she got a couple of punches in first.   
Mac, Maia and Alex had hung back when the debate had first started. They weren't a part of the Mutant X team, they had never done this kind of thing before. What use could they possibly have been? But now it looked like the group was split, Mac could tell. Brennan and Shalimar were all for racing in their, guns blazing, ready for the fight whereas Jesse and Emma favoured a more cautious approach.   
Mac didn't know what she wanted to do. This was Gabriel, her big brother. How could she let them go in there and beat the crap out of him? But then again, how could she not? After everything he had done didn't he deserve it?  
Then she felt it again.   
When they had landed there had been something nagging away at her but she pushed it aside, thinking, hoping that it was nothing. But now she couldn't. It had gotten stronger and she didn't know why but she knew she couldn't just let it lie. If it was important she might never forgive herself.   
  
Gabriel paced the room in front of Sara. Her face was wet from a combination of tears and blood. She had a huge gash on her forehead and her arms were aching from the weight of the chains. She could no longer remember how long she had been there, everything had drifted together in her mind.   
He was getting pissed off with the lack of noise. Atleast with Shalimar there had always been the banter but this girl seemed content to sit in silence. He walked round to the back of her and looked her up and down, his eyes eventually resting on the subdermal governor in the back of her neck. He remembered the trapped feeling that they brought to the wearer, how he couldn't use any of his abilities without excruciating pain. He had hated them. He smiled as he thought about how Sara must feel. Trapped. That was exactly the way he wanted her. The weaker she was, the easier it would be for him to 'persuade' her.   
  
Shalimar trod softly on the ground. She looked back over her right shoulder and saw the rest of the team. They were standing behind other buildings, anything that would keep them out of the immediate eye range of anyone in the warehouse. She had gone forward first, closely followed by Mac and Alex. Being ferals all of them were a lot more quiet than the rest and there was more chance of them getting into the building undetected.   
The warehouse looked just like every other warehouse in the immediate vicinity. It had steel grey walls and a sloping roof which appeared to be made out of corrugated iron, patches of rust here and there. There was a huge sign on the side announcing that the building belonged to MacGrath and Sons, whoever they might have been. They clearly didn't own it anymore. There were four huge windows across the side of the building but they looked as if they were covered in blinds on the inside.   
Shalimar signaled for the other two to head round the sides of the building to see if there was some easier access somewhere. She crept up to the wall and bent her legs slightly. With a quick push off the floor she jumped and landed lightly on the roof of the warehouse. Steadying herself almost immediately she took a look around to see where everyone else had gone. They had all talked it over and had figured that it was completely useless and quite possibly extremely dangerous for Jesse to simply phase one of the walls. They had no idea what could be in there waiting for them so the ferals had been sent ahead to check it all out.   
She walked across the roof, cringing everytime her foot made contact. With her feral hearing she was sure she could be heard but she kept going until she reached the other side. She had been hoping for some sort of skylight but there was nothing.   
She looked down at the sound of tyres skidding on concrete. A red BMW came to a halt and a brunette got out of it. It took a while for Shalimar to remember the face. Shal had kicked her ass at the school when they had first picked up Mac and then again when Mutant X had picked up her and Alex in the woods. She looked a mixture of pissed off and scared for her life.   
'Well, I'm guessing she's not happy with me,' whispered Shalimar to herself. 'Guys, I'm thinking Gabriel will know pretty soon.'  
  
Annie opened the door to the main room of the warehouse. She saw the girl chained to the chair in the middle of the room and then glanced across at Gabriel, leaning against the wall. He looked up at her and then across at Sara.   
'You lost them,' he said calmly. Annie was even more frightened by this than if he had grabbed her by her throat and started choking the life out of her.   
'I'm sorry Gabriel. I thought I had them and then Mutant X showed up and...' she trailed off, knowing that no excuse was good enough for Gabriel. Her head dropped onto her chest. She knew what was coming, she had seen it happen before. The links who had failed in their particular tasks before had all been treated to the same thing, in completely different ways.   
'You know, its a shame. I liked you Annie, I really did. And I didn't want to see you hurt, but then you let me down,' said Gabriel as he pushed himself off the wall and walked towards her. 'And now, in repayment for your failure, it looks like I'm gonna have to punish you.'  
He walked round to the back of her and traced imaginary shapes up and down her spine. It sent shivers rolling through her entire body.   
And then he heard it.   
He had suspected as soon as he had found out about the dealings with Mutant X in the woods that they were coming to find Sara. He had heard, in the distance the sound of a plane coming in to land. It had been quiet but his feral hearing was stronger than that. And then he heard the lightest of taps on the roof of the warehouse. At first he had put it down to birds or the wind but the noise had persisted and now he had to do something.   
'There is a way you could redeem yourself,' he whispered through Annie's sleek hair. She turned her head slightly to look at him, a small smile replacing the look of fear that had been on her face just moments before.   
She raised her arms above her head and closed her eyes, willing the heat that was constantly within her to push itself out. An orange glow slowly developed, spreading outwards from the palm of her hands to her fingertips. Gradually the orange glow became deeper and then with one last push the glow transferred itself from her hands to the ceiling.   
  
Shalimar made a signal to Mac to stay where she was. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on. A few minutes ago she had heard voices, one of them definitely Gabriel's but they had quieted down and now she couldn't hear a thing.   
Suddenly Gabriel threw open the door and strode out into the sunlight. He walked a little way across the concrete to a group of links who had been discussing what was going on inside. He said something to them quietly that Shalimar didn't catch. The group broke apart and they all wandered off in their own directions.   
'Damn it,' Shalimar said under her breath. She had to warn the others that they had been found out. They would have to pull back while she went in alone.   
She drew her comlink up to her lips but then something weird started happening. Heat seemed to be seeping out of the roof she was standing on. Gabriel didn't know about the others, he knew about her.   
Her feet were gradually getting hotter and hotter, and drops of perspiration were starting to form on her forehead, the cause a mixture of fear and heat. She walked across to the middle of the roof trying to work out which would be the safest way down, which new mutant would be easiest to beat. Unfortunately she didn't get to make the decision.   
As she stepped onto the seam between the two slopes of the roof it gave way beneath her and she fell with an enormous crash to the floor below. 


	17. Bring it on

As always (and yeah, I know I say this everytime) please review. You can read beforehand if you really want...   
  
I hope y'all like the new chapter. I would just like to point out that I do love getting suggestions. So thank you to Ace. Unfortunately I couldn't kill Shalimar. She plays a pivotal role and is also one of my favourite characters (the other one being Brennan without his shirt on...hell he does that so often I could hardly not). So she has a broken leg, some broken ribs and probably a really scratched and grazed and bruised face...I hope that makes you happy.   
  
Anyways have a nice day.  
***  
Mac gasped and made to rush forward but Alex held her back. He wanted to help Shalimar too but there was no way the two of them could fight the eight or so new mutants and Gabriel without help. They had to find some way of letting the others know.   
  
They continued to watch from their vantage point behind a couple of bushes as Gabriel who had heard the crash walked calmly into the building, closing the door behind him. The links held their positions, keeping an eye out for the rest of Mutant X to show up.   
  
They waited a couple of minutes but Mac was getting restless and uneasy.   
  
'We have to do something soon. Who knows what he's doing to her in their,' she whispered to Alex.  
  
He looked at her and saw the worried look on her face. . He knew what she was talking about. He didn't know Gabriel personally but from the stories he had heard since being at Sanctuary...not meeting the guy personally was definitely a good thing. They had to get Shal and Sara, the reason they had come out of there as soon as possible.   
  
'Use your telempathy.'  
  
Mac's brow creased. She had never really had a handle on that power before and had never bothered to work at it. She had no idea how powerful she was and she didn't know how to use it and the consequences if she did were endless. What if it all went wrong and she killed a whole load of people? What if she caused small puppies to die?   
  
'You can do it.' Alex had absolute confidence in his friend. He always had even when he didn't know that she had mutant abilities. She had been through a lot and had managed to come out a stronger person because of it.   
  
'Kill small puppies?!' Mac asked, shocked.  
  
Alex looked at her like she was insane.  
  
'Sorry, imagining the worst possible situation if my telempathy goes wrong,'   
  
This time Alex just looked confused.   
  
'Not really the worst possible situation right?' she asked wryly.   
  
Ignoring Alex's snickers Mac breathed deeply and then concentrated on the mind of one of the links. She closed her eyes and suddenly she was in. She looked around her and saw all of his emotions clearly set out in front of her. His fear of Gabriel, his belief that what he was doing was right, his insecurities about his abilities and himself in general. They were all there. And then there were his fears. He was scared of spiders. Mac inwardly laughed as she remembered what a big guy he was. But if it hadn't been for the desperation of the situation she didn't know if she would have been able to exploit and manipulate his emotions the way she did. Twisting someone's mind for her own purpose seemed so cruel but Shalimar's and Sara's lives were on the line. Time was a major factor.   
  
Alex looked across at the biggest guy out of the three. He had started screaming for the other guys to get them off him. It was incredibly entertaining viewing and Alex had a hard time stifling the laughter that was bubbling up inside him. Mac also had a slight smile on his face. But they quickly got to work.   
  
As soon as the two other guys had gone off to help their friend who had gone running off in the direction of a different warehouse Mac and Alex ran forward as silently and with as much speed as was possible.   
***  
Shalimar stirred slightly on the ground. She felt like her body had been snapped in half and then stamped on. She made to stand up but couldn't even move her arms to push herself off the floor. She stopped moving completely and listened. She knew that Gabriel would have found out about her falling escapades and wanted to have some warning of when exactly he was gonna start with the witty comments and the beating the crap out of her.   
  
She screamed in agony when strong pressure was placed on her leg. She was guessing it had been broken in the fall. Which meant that she absolutely had to rely on the others. Without her leg she was pretty useless, especially against a guy like Gabriel.   
  
'I knew you wanted me,' taunted Gabriel.  
  
'Yeah, like I want a stomach ulcer,' she said through gritted teeth, the pain still coursing up and down her nerves. She breathed a sigh of relief when Gabriel lifted his foot off of her leg. He walked round to the front of Shalimar and grabbed her hands. He pulled her up onto her feet whereupon she instantly buckled. He grabbed her under her arms and pulled her closer to him but she pushed him away from her and only just managed to stand on her good leg. She glared at him through her hair.   
  
'Hi Shalimar,' Gabriel said in the sweetest voice he could muster. He smirked at her. This was a big improvement from that stupid bitch he had been torturing earlier. Shalimar was so full of life and she had only been 30 seconds in his presence and already she hated him all over again. This was the life.   
  
'Hi jackass,' Shalimar said in an equally sweet voice. She really, really did hate him.  
***  
As soon as Brennan heard the crash come from the warehouse he drew the familiar energy into his hand and released it straight at one of the new mutants, who had been standing guarding the building for a few minutes. It shot the guy straight back against the wall of the warehouse and, in the momentary chaos that followed Brennan, keeping low to the ground ran forward a couple of steps until he was behind a huge bin. He looked back at Jesse and nodded, signaling that he would cover him while he ran forward a little way.   
  
He knew it had to be Shalimar, it had to be her who had fallen through the roof and now she was at the hands of Gabriel. Speed was of the essence. They had to get her out of there ASAP.   
  
Jesse ran forward as Brennan skirted around the corner of the bin and shot off a couple of tesla coils. Two more of the new mutants went flying. The remaining two stopped trying to help their colleagues and ran for cover. As they went they pulled out pistols from holsters on their backs and started firing bullets at Jesse. He had been attempting to move forward and massed just in time for the bullets to hit something rock solid. They fell to the ground, useless.   
  
Brennan shot off another tesla coil. It missed its target and the guards kept on running. But then they fell over onto the ground. Or atleast it looked like they had fallen over. Brennan and Jesse took it as their cue and ran forward. By that point the links had stood up and were just in time to receive a couple of quick kicks and punches to the head before they fell over again.   
  
Jesse looked over to where Emma and Maia had been concealed but only Emma was there. She walked across to them and then pointed. Maia was strolling towards the group, a smile on her face.   
  
'Those guys didn't fall, did they?' Jesse asked, smiling back at her.  
  
'You proud?'  
  
Before Jesse got a chance to reply to the question Brennan called them over. He was desperate to get into the building to help Shalimar. It had taken them too long to take out the five new mutants and God only knew what might have happened to her in the meantime.   
  
All four started running as fast as they could as they heard a scream from the inside of the building. They reached the door at the same time as Mac and Alex. They all shared the same shocked, worried expression. They found the door was locked and Jesse phased it with his hand. They looked at each other in anxious expectation as they walked through, not sure what they would see. 


	18. The time has come

I know this is not a very long chapter but I am literally drained of all energy. Exams starting soon so I may not be able to post anything for a little while (though as usually happens I'll probably end up putting aside revision for a couple of hours/days/weeks, delete as applicable).  
  
Thanks for the reviews. Please try and review after this chapter. I promise the story will be over soon.   
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
Shalimar watched in horror as Gabriel twisted Annie's neck till it cracked. She winced as she heard the snap and closed her eyes, praying for the first time in her life. She knew that Gabriel wouldn't kill her yet but he could do so much worse than that to her.   
  
'You know, I really thought she was special. I really thought she would be good for the Strand.'  
  
Shalimar looked across at Gabriel with disgust on her face. He was sick, totally sick. She looked down at Annie's body and inwardly shuddered. She was broken, had been before she had had her neck cracked. That was the worst thing about Gabriel. He knew exactly how to wear people down until they were emotionally atleast completely wrecked, entirely empty.   
  
'What do you want her for?' Shalimar asked, looking over at Sara. She was still tied to a chair and looked like she was losing consciousness.   
  
'Oh come on Shalimar. I expected better from you. You think I'm gonna just tell you my evil plans so you can stop them? I don't think so.'  
  
Shalimar laughed.  
  
'What?' Gabriel asked.   
  
'I have not missed you at all. And I was wondering, why choose world domination? You could write or do stand-up. The options are endless for a guy with your talents.' She breathed deeply after speaking. She must have broken a couple of ribs cos she wasn't breathing too well. And the lack of oxygen was making her lightheaded. She had to keep Gabriel talking though. If he lost interest in her he was more likely to kill her than if she kept up the lively banter. And maybe she would find something out.   
  
Sara smiled slightly and let out a tiny laugh. Both Gabriel and Shalimar looked across at her.   
  
'Well, atleast she thinks I'm funny,' muttered Shalimar.   
  
Gabriel walked over to Sara and grabbed her by the throat. Banter with Shalimar was fine, Shalimar was...Shalimar. This girl was most definitely not. She didn't have any right to laugh at him. She was his goddam hostage.   
  
Shalimar rushed towards the two of them and grabbing Gabriel by the shoulder, swung him round so that he was facing her. She brought her fist slamming into Gabriel's cheek and followed it up with a knee to his gut. He doubled over as did Shalimar. She was in no fit state to be fighting but she had to buy herself and Sara time. Gabriel drew his fist upwards. It smashed into Shalimar's jaw and she fell backwards, landing on the ground on her back. In a minute Gabriel was pinning her down and she closed her eyes, knowing that she didn't have the strength to carry on and that he would take advantage and finish it.  
  
But she felt the weight of Gabriels body become lighter, so light that it felt like he wasn't even there. She opened her eyes and found herself looking into Brennan's concerned brown ones. He reached out his hand to her and helped her up. She let out a whimper as the pain in her leg increased.   
  
Brennan looked at her face. She was hurting and he figured they had to get her home soon. At the very least back to the Double Helix. She had already fought enough for one day. He slipped his arm around her waist and let her lean on him.   
  
Meanwhile Jesse had phased the chains keeping Sara in contact with the chair. She had finally given up on trying to stay awake through all the concussion and he was carrying her in his arms. She seemed so light and small. Clearly they hadn't been feeding her brilliantly. And she was probably dehydrated. Jesse couldn't imagine how scared she must have been the whole time she was there. He didn't want to.   
  
Mac, Maia, Alex and Emma hadn't been taking a break while all this was going on. Maia had been the one who had pulled Gabriel off of Shalimar. The group had run into the main room of the warehouse and seeing what was about to happen Maia had been the first one to reach Shalimar. She had pushed Gabriel along with her until she had reached one of the walls and she had then shoved him into it hard. She had only winded him but it gave them the advantage.   
  
Mac looked at the man standing in front of her. He stared straight back and it was like neither of them could have broken the gaze even if they had wanted to.  
  
'Get out of here,' Mac said in a voice which carried over all the other noise in the room. Everybody looked across at them but nobody moved. It was like the entire room had frozen, no one wanted to break the silence or stillness.   
  
'Go,' she urged.   
  
'We're not leaving you here with him,' Emma said as she walked over to Mac.   
  
Why did nobody ever listen to her? She was sorry to have to resort to this. Mac's eyelids closed and then she started to glow. All she knew was that she had to get them out of there so she could finish this. Gabriel may have caused them all a load of crap but there was no way anybody else was gonna get the opportunity to kick his ass when she was this close. The glow became brighter and stronger and it started growing, engulfing Macs entire body. Her head was pounding. After all of her telempathic activities that day she was exhausted. But she knew it was the only way to stop them from getting hurt. She focused on the minds of Mutant X and her friends.   
  
Emma felt a sudden sleepiness come over her. She turned around and watched as her fellow teammates dropped to the floor. She tried to hold off the buckling of her legs for as long as possible and it worked for a while. But it appeared that Mac's inexperience with her psionic abilities allowed her to simply let go more than Emma. Emma reached out her arms in front of her and managed to break her fall.   
  
The glow started to draw itself back into Mac's body and she opened her eyes slowly to look straight into Gabriels. The time had come. 


	19. Small talk

Sorry it has been so long. Exams are totally taking over my life, those pesky things.   
  
I also had no idea what the hell to write. This is so not my best chapter, its not even good but what the hell...its the best you're gonna get for a while.  
  
Hope y'all enjoy.  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
Gabriel looked into Mac's eyes. She looked serious. Not that it worried him. He had always managed to beat the people he had gone up against. And she had just made it easier for him. By sending the whole of Mutant X to sleep she had left the way open for him to take Sara without any kind of opposition. His plan was still going to work out even with the troublesome interference.  
  
Mac inwardly smiled. This guy was so confident, so cocky in his own ability to win. She wasn't worried, atleast not yet. She knew she could hold her own and protect the others as well. She had had to send them to sleep. If she had have telempathically forced them outside back to the Double Helix it would have taken too long and it would have given Gabriel a shot to catch them. She was prepared to die as long as it involved taking Gabriel with her but there was no way she was gonna risk anybody else.  
  
'So, how's your life been?' she asked pleasantly.  
  
'I've killed some people, got plenty of power and women...in short, its been great.'  
  
'Women, really? Were they all desperate, or blind deaf retards?  
  
'When did you get all funny?'  
  
'I'm not normally this amusing but you're such a fantastic muse.'  
  
Gabriel smirked. Finally someone else other than Shalimar who could keep up with his insults. Now he knew they had to be related.   
  
Mac smirked back. She was incredibly serious about the whole situation but figured it would be interesting and possibly useful if she found out what Gabriel had wanted Sara for. It didn't make a lot of sense that he would capture her for information, what could she possibly know other than the addresses of a couple of safehouses? And it wasn't likely that he went to all the trouble of kidnapping her just to piss Mutant X off. He had succeeded in doing that but it wasn't his aim.   
  
A wistful look filled her big eyes. She was staring at her big brother, the one guy in the world that she was supposed to be able to turn to in any situation, when friends couldn't help, when parents were the problem, this was the guy that she was supposed to look up to. It wasn't so funny anymore.   
  
She pitied him for being so barren of any basic human emotions other than anger but more than that she pitied herself. She pitied herself because despite what she had always managed to tell herself life wasn't gonna turn out okay, she wasn't better off than most people. She had no parents, her friends could never truly understand her and she was faced with the awful truth. Her brother was a scumbag. In any ordinary situation that wouldn't matter but this particular scumbag was trying to hurt people which meant that she was gonna have to deal with it. And she really didn't want to do that.  
  
Gabriel looked Mac up and down. He didn't know exactly what she was thinking but he could see the little cogs in her mind turning. It was always amusing to watch people figuring out what to do with him. He had watched his parents do it countless times, and then Eckhart when he had been considering whether or not to put him in a stasis pod. Knowing that Mac was a feral would normally have led him to the conclusion that she would act on instinct but there was also the psionic side of her. It was a constant battle inside of her. The wildness of being feral, the spontaneity always having to be balanced out by the subdued, cautious psionic within her. It was the same with molecular and elemental. One was stable, the other consistently unpredictable. He knew what she was going through because he had been there himself. He remembered all the confusion, the tension within your own body and mind. He was so glad he was over that stage. It was way more fun watching other people experience it.   
  
Suddenly the three new mutants that had run off after Mac used her telempathy came bursting into the warehouse. They stood looking at the situation in front of them and then each took up a fighting stance. Gabriel leant back against the wall behind him and prepared to watch Mac. He wasn't scared of her, he just wanted to check out some of her moves.  
  
Mac surveyed the view in front of her. The three guys she could take down easily enough, but if she was planning on taking Gabriel out she was gonna need them out of the way for quite some time. And she didn't want Mutant X or her friends to get hurt in the process.  
  
She bent her knees and leaped into the air. She flew across the heads of the new mutants and landed behind them. They turned around and she landed a round kick to one of their heads. He dropped to the ground, floored but not out. The one to the right drew his hands together and started to draw some kind of purple energy into them. He released it and Mac executed a back somersault. It missed her by mere inches and she landed again.   
  
Then the fight really started. She hit some hard punches and kicks and after a while it was just one on one with the guy she had made cry like a little girl. He looked pissed. But that was a disadvantage for him, not her. In her short time at the Mutant X headquarters she had learnt that anger was a weakness and that before every fight she had to try and calm herself down mentally. Being physically wired was fine, it meant the adrenaline was flowing but she needed to stay focused and not let her anger, her rage become an obstacle. She had heard it from everyone in Mutant X. She had gotten pretty sick of it after a while but it seemed to make sense. The guy swung his fist at her head and she ducked swinging her leg across the floor and sweeping his legs from beneath him. His skull slammed into the floor with a crack. She closed her eyes and tried to extinguish the noise from her memory. She opened her eyes and started walking across the floor attempting to avoid the random bodies.   
  
Gabriel had been watching her the whole way through. She was strong, there was no denying it but she didn't have the technique, the skills to beat him. And she didn't have enough confidence in her abilities. Sure, she was good with the feral side but she wasn't happy using her psionic or molecular powers. The corner of his mouth lifted as he thought how easy it would be to kick her ass. 


	20. To help or not to help

I'm not sure how good this chapter is. I'm not brilliant with fight scenes and although I haven't lost my muse completely I may have misplaced it. And I have to admit to being slightly influenced by The Matrix Reloaded (didn't understand a word of what anyone was saying but the action...) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Caleb, Rhona, the vineyard...go figure.) So thank you to both of them.  
  
I'm also not sure as to whether Gabriel has telekinetic abilities or not but its my story and if in the real Mutant X he doesn't I will be sure to take it away from him before I give him back.  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
Emma's eyes flickered open. She was staring across a cement floor at Jesse's face. Lying just next to him was Sara. Emma had been fighting Mac's mind control ever since it had started. She was powerful granted but Emma could still work against anyone's mojo if she felt it required that kind of strength. She had been telempathically pushing for a while and had found chinks in the strong wall that Mac had put up, chinks that if widened could bring the whole thing down but it was like suddenly the wall had disappeared... But not disappeared. It was like Mac had stopped concentrating and the wall had become smaller and Emma had just stepped over it.  
  
She could hear faint noises in the background but was reluctant to get up until she knew what was going on. She focused her still foggy mind on Mac's. She knew Gabriel would recognize someone poking around inside instantly but either Mac wasn't trained enough yet or she wouldn't really care. It wasn't like Emma was her enemy.   
  
The lids of her eyes shut closed and then snapped wide open again. But when they flicked open she wasn't looking at Jesse and Sara, she was looking at Mac. Emma looked at her through a mesh wire fence. Mac was pushing on it, the anger and frustration at not being able to push it down or tear through it evident on her face. But she kept on trying, even though her hands were stinging from the beating she was giving them.  
  
Emma's eyes shut closed and she was out. She wasn't sure whether she had made Mac aware of her presence or not, she had seemed too caught up in everything else that was going on around her. Understandable. She was facing Gabriel Ashlocke, first ever new mutant, and most powerful...supposedly.  
  
***  
  
Mac stared at Gabriel. She didn't know what to do. She knew Gabriel was the bad guy and it made a heck of a lot of sense to beat the crap out of him but somehow she just couldn't find it within herself to do it. Maybe he was controlling her mind but she didn't think so. No matter how much she hated him she couldn't kill him. She breathed deeply.  
  
Gabriel raised his hand quickly and Mac sailed backwards into the wall at the other end of the warehouse. She smashed into it and fell to the floor. Pieces of paint and plaster came with her and a small whimper escaped her lips. Now she had no problem with hurting him.   
  
She pushed herself off the dust-covered floor and rolled her shoulders back, trying to work the kinks out of her muscles. She started to walk forward but then had to make a detour as a bolt of energy came flying straight for her. She jumped to one side and as soon as she landed on the floor she started running down one side of the long warehouse. Gabriel continued to fire energy at her but all his blasts hit were the walls where she had been. By the time he realized what was going on Mac was behind him and she delivered a swift kick to his knee. He buckled and she kicked him in the head. He dropped to the floor but wasn't there for long before getting up. Mac was standing in front of him, taking a defensive position, ready to fight.   
  
She stepped forward on her right leg and kicked at his chest with her left but he blocked it. She then did the same with the opposite legs and again Gabriel managed to block the move. But she swiftly stepped onto her right leg and swung her left one round. It hit Gabriel in his temple and knocked him back. His eyes flashed golden in reply. He somersaulted forwards into the air and brought his right leg down on the top of Mac's head. She fell forwards. He had stunned her, she hadn't been prepared for such a comeback.   
  
Doubt filled her mind. Maybe she wasn't ready to fight Gabriel, this had been a bad idea. She pushed herself up onto her hands and knees and from there intended to get back onto her feet but Gabriel slipped in with a rib breaking kick to her chest. She flew into the air and landed on her front breaking a couple more ribs in the process. Her head was throbbing and she knew she had to get up and carry on. But there was so much pain and she was running out of energy.   
  
Again she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees but this time made it to her feet. She was met by a couple of quick punches but managed to block them. She flipped backwards catching Gabriel on his jaw. He fell onto the floor behind him and Mac took the opportunity to issue some kicks to his ribs. He caught her foot though and stood up off the ground. When he was balanced he let go of her leg and swung one of his to knock her off both of hers. She landed on the ground, her head slamming against the floor. A sharp intake of breath could be heard as she tried to breathe through the broken ribs.   
  
Her whole body was aching as Gabriel grabbed hold of her left hand and pulled her up, back onto her feet. He twisted her arm round till it was nearly pulled out its socket and then slammed his palm into the elbow. A satisfying crack came from the arm and a scream escaped from Mac's lips. He let go and she dropped to the floor. Gabriel smirked. He always loved breaking peoples spirits, so fulfilling. But in the absence of a spirit to break bones did just as good.   
  
***  
  
Emma rolled over onto her back and watched as Mac and Gabriel fought it out. She was trying to work out if there was anything she could do to help and if she even wanted to. If she telempathically stopped them chances were neither of them would thank her. Mac had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. She had only just made the decision to fight Gabriel anyway. But another part of Emma was nagging at her to stop them both. She knew she shouldn't care if Gabriel got hurt or killed but she did. He was a person after all, granted an extremely psychologically unhinged person but... And Emma really didn't want Mac to get hurt. She didn't deserve the life she got. She didn't deserve to have Gabriel be her brother. She didn't deserve all the crap that came along with that.   
  
Emma had been so caught up in her own thoughts that she hadn't noticed what was taking place in the fight and her attention was rapidly brought back as she heard Mac's blood curdling scream.  
  
***  
  
Shalimar's eyes shot open. And the pain came flooding back. She whimpered quietly, trying not to draw attention to herself. She couldn't see anything but her hearing was still near enough to perfect and she could draw some pretty neat pictures in her head based on the vibrations coming through the floor. She could practically see Mac lying on the ground, Gabriel standing over her like some sort of God. He was beating the crap out of her and much as she wanted Mac to be the one who finally beat Gabriel she didn't want her to get taken down with him.   
  
She looked up to see Emma looking straight at her with concern written all over her face. Shalimar smiled a small smile, trying to reassure her friend. She motioned to Gabriel, who had his back to them and Emma nodded. Unsure of what to do but knowing that something had to be done. There was no way they could leave Mac to deal with Gabriel by herself, especially not now she had a broken arm.   
  
Emma stood up as quietly as she could and started to make her way over to Shalimar. Shalimar began to push herself up and managed to get to her knees before the pain of supporting herself became too much. She wrapped her arms around her chest, hoping to control some of the agony.   
  
'Good plan ladies but Emma you're not a feral, creeping is really not your thing. And Shalimar, honey, you're breathing so loudly the unconscious people heard you.'  
  
They both looked up slowly, knowing they had been caught. 


	21. Own worst enemy

I know this is not a very long chapter but it seemed like the right place to stop so I did.   
  
I hope you are all enjoying it so far. Its nearly finished, I promise. I'm gonna wrap it up in the next couple of chapters. Any suggestions for an ending won't necessarily be taken on board but I promise to appreciate them. I do need a little help on finishing it, think I've got it just about the way I want it in my head but if I get any better offers I'll go with them.  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
They both looked on in shock. Gabriel was lying on the floor against the far wall. His black leather jacket was covered in dust and large chunks of plaster, and he wasn't moving. Shalimar turned around to look behind her and saw Brennan, getting up off the floor. He walked over to her, a smile on his face that didn't quite reach his eyes. He was still concerned about Shalimar's health. She was in pain and this time round he was determined to get her on the Double Helix and away from Gabriel.   
  
Mac breathed deeply. She was trying to block the pain out of her head and the only thing that seemed to have worked was when Brennan shot a huge arc of electricity at Gabriel, had flung him against the wall. It had temporarily stunned Mac and all of her reflexes and senses, including the one that monitored pain. She hated that one and was quite glad that it was stunned but now that she was capable of moderately coherent thoughts the pain came flooding back.   
  
Emma shook Jesse by his arm. He opened his eyes and within seconds was picking Sara up again.  
  
'She's still unconscious?' Alex asked. He and Maia had both been woken up by Emma and were now wide-awake, curious as to what had happened, but they were a little bit wiser as to what kind of danger they were in. They wanted to get out of there, hell, they wanted to go back to school.  
  
'Yeah, lucky her,' Jesse replied. He walked over to one of the long walls, wanting to avoid Gabriel by as big a margin as possible. He didn't trust that Brennan had shocked him unconscious, he wouldn't put it past Gabriel to be lying in wait for one of them to walk straight past him so he could take them hostage and get out of there with the advantage. Jesse was gonna get them all out through that wall and then they would all go home and they would all wait to fight Gabriel another day.  
  
'Allow me,' Mac offered. She was tired, exhausted mentally and physically. She had never fought anyone like Gabriel before and it had drained her muscles completely. But Jesse had his hands full and they had to get out of that warehouse.  
  
Shalimar started to walk forward but her leg buckled beneath her and the only thing that stopped her from hitting the floor was Brennan's arms underneath her. She put one arm over his shoulders and let him take her full weight. Inwardly she was smiling. Brennan was holding her in his arms, admittedly out of necessity because otherwise she was gonna fall on her ass but still. Brennan couldn't keep himself from grinning like that cat that got the cream. Emma and Jesse looked at each other, raised eyebrows. They already knew what was going on between the pair but they had needed confirmation. And the way Brennan and Shalimar were looking at each other and acting around each other was proof enough.   
  
The group walked over to the phased wall and straight on through it. Helix was hidden and they half walked, half ran, all of them taking fleeting glances backwards. They didn't want to risk being caught off guard by Gabriel. They eventually reached the invisible ship. Emma took it out of stealth mode and they all got on board. Jesse lay Sara down on the bed that had been placed in the hull out of sheer essentiality. So many people had been hurt or injured when they were brought on board that it had been thought sensible, when updating the planes look to add a bed.   
  
Jesse then walked to the front of the ship and started it up. In a matter of minutes they were back at Sanctuary, safe for another day atleast from Gabriel.  
  
***  
  
Mac watched as the Double Helix lifted off the ground causing a cloud of dust to rise with it and disperse itself. She was sorry to see it leave but knew she had no choice. They couldn't continue to rely on getting away and hiding out for a while until they regrouped. Gabriel was gonna come for them no matter what and she was the only person who could stop him.   
  
She smiled wistfully, thinking how her life might have turned out if she hadn't become involved in the whole saving the world gig. She was pretty sure that it wasn't all that original a thought but somehow it comforted her. And right at that moment she needed some comfort.   
  
She knew she would never have been the most popular girl in school, or the most intelligent or the prettiest. The thought of her being popular was somewhat ludicrous to her. She would never have fitted in, she would never have wanted to. Her thoughts, her feelings didn't seem to be the same as those of other people and she had a feeling it wasn't just because she was a new mutant. Maybe it was her parents death that had affected her even though she had, for so many years protested that it hadn't. She had never been angry, she had never blamed them for leaving her, she had never really blamed Gabriel. She had never even cried. Part of her hadn't seen the point. Crying wasn't gonna make her situation any better, it wasn't going to make her suddenly happy and carefree and it definitely wasn't gonna give her closure or whatever the counselors she had been forced to see thought she should have. She had never really considered it a sad enough event to warrant tears. It wasn't like her parents had gone anywhere. They would always be inside of her, helping her in whatever way they could, guiding her through whatever troubles, whatever problems she had. And they were telling her to face him.   
  
She squashed the fear that was threatening to spill out and turned around, ready to confront her past, her own worst enemy. 


	22. The ultimate sacrifice

Sorry its been so long since I updated. I have been so insanely busy doing end of term stuff that I have not had a moment to call my own...okay so I went shopping yesterday but shoes are always a top priority.   
  
This is the penultimate installment of Sibling Rivalry. There is nothing more I can do with the story and its really starting to piss me off. I have so many other ideas whizzing around in this blonde head of mine that I wanted to get started on them and I have to finish The Morning After the Night Before. I hope you all enjoyed the story...I had fun writing it.  
  
Please try and review...it would give me a huge boost to know that people were reading from beginning to end.  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
Mac walked around the warehouse to reach the door as opposed to phasing the wall, savoring her last few minutes of liberty, the last moments before she went to face her brother. And the weird thing was she didn't feel guilty, she didn't feel angry. She felt...nothing. Emptiness filled her mind and her heart. She knew she was doing a good thing, she was ridding the world of the menace that was Gabriel Ashlocke. But it didn't feel good. She didn't feel like she was doing the right thing. And in some part of her she still loved Gabriel. He may have been one hell of an evil bastard but he was family, the only family that she had left. And somehow the two points of view, the one where she loved him and would do anything just to make him a good person, and the one where she hated his guts and wanted to make him suffer for everything he had ever done, somehow the two arguments balanced each other out.   
  
She blinked back the tears that were forming themselves at the bottom of her eyes in little pools. She would not cry, she couldn't or she would never get the job done. She couldn't allow herself to become too emotional because then she knew she wouldn't have the willpower or strength to follow through with her plan. She couldn't be weak, within herself or externally. She breathed deeply and continued walking.   
  
***  
  
'Where's Gabriel?' Adam asked, his voice full of obvious relief that they had all gotten back to Sanctuary.   
  
'We left him in the warehouse, didn't really want to try and move him for fear that he would kill us all,' Shalimar replied with a slight smirk playing on her lips.   
  
Adam looked at her indulgently. He knew very little of what she had suffered at the hands of Gabriel physically, mentally and emotionally. She had been through more than any person should. And he knew how she felt about him trying to come up with some kind of cure for Gabriel's deterioration. It didn't mean that Adam was going to stop trying but he understood why Shalimar wanted him to fail so badly.   
  
It was then that Adam noticed how heavily Shalimar was leaning on Brennan. His brow furrowed and he ordered her and Sara into the lab for a check up.   
  
Jesse and Emma flopped onto any available surface. They were both completely worn out as were Maia and Alex. They lay back on a table and stared at the ceiling above, both unable to find the strength to move any of their limbs.   
  
Emma shot up only minutes after lying down, her eyes wide open in shock and fear.  
  
  
  
'What's wrong?' asked Jesse his voice full of anxiety as he sat up beside her.  
  
'Where's Mac?' she asked.   
  
Jesse's eyes narrowed as he thought back to when they left the warehouse. She had been with them then but he hadn't really been paying a whole lot of attention since. Maybe she had wandered off, after all she had been through, some alone time was not a lot to ask. But it was probably best to check.   
  
Emma however was one step ahead of him and was already telempathically searching for Mac. But it was difficult and Emma knew it was because she was further away than she should have been if she was in Sanctuary. She also remembered Mac being with them as they got onto Helix but looking back she could see certain kinks. Mac had seemed two-dimensional and she knew it hadn't made any sense at the time but Emma and the others had all been so desperate to get as far away from Gabriel as possible they had rushed. Mac's emotions hadn't been present. Normally Emma could sense if a person was feeling empty, they gave off certain vibes but Mac had been different, she had been a black hole.   
  
Shalimar, Brennan and Adam all looked towards the door as Emma and Jesse rushed in with Maia and Alex not far behind them.   
  
'We have to go back,' Emma said, her eyes wild , her pulse racing.   
  
'Why?' Shalimar asked, her voice laced with disbelief.   
  
'Because Mac's still there.'   
  
***  
  
Gabriel stood up and dusted off his leather jacket. His clothes were covered in dust and grime and various footprints all left there by Mackenzie. He smirked as he thought about how she had tried. She hadn't succeeded and now had a broken arm but she had tried. If Mutant X hadn't have showed up dragging their hero complexes behind them he would have killed her. Or maybe he would have driven her insane with images from their parents death. Whatever, it would have been fun.   
  
His head jerked around as the door slammed open. Mac stood there, fire in her eyes, her fists clenched by her sides. He smiled again but this time it faded. She looked so fierce, so strong and he knew that the previous fight had been just a warm-up. This was the real thing. Yet again he had underestimated her.   
  
Mac looked at her brother and felt the anger welling up inside her. She had pitied him before, after all, it wasn't his fault he a complete psycho but she had seen one too many smirks, and the full extent of his plan. She had passed through the office before making it to the main room and had seen something she had glossed over the first time through.   
  
Now she held it up in her hand.   
  
He looked on in shock as she opened the fist of her free hand and drew a huge burst of electricity into it. She drew back her other hand and threw the object straight towards him.   
  
***  
  
The Helix soared across the sky towards the warehouse. Brennan was driving. Allowing Shalimar to come at all had caused a huge row and he had point blank refused to let her pilot the Double Helix. Sara had been left behind in Sanctuary, everyone agreeing that she needed time to catch on some zzz's.   
  
Maia and Alex were sitting in the back. Alex couldn't stop moving around, fidgeting with anything and everything. Maia was sitting in stony silence. She knew exactly what Mac was going to do, knew exactly what Mac was willing to sacrifice to take down the brother who had caused her so much pain over the years.   
  
Shalimar looked out of the window next to her seat and saw the warehouse. It looked so small from her vantage point and it seemed un-real than they had all been there fighting Gabriel a mere half hour before.   
  
The Helix landed on the solid ground and before the doors were fully open everyone except Brennan was out. He joined them and they all started making their was towards the warehouse. 


	23. A new world A new life

Well, this is it. The end. I hope you've all enjoyed reading this story. I enjoyed writing it but don't expect a sequel anytime soon.   
  
Thanks for all the reviews. They have been greatly appreciated and if you would just take the time to review this chapter...it is the last one...  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
Jesse shook his head trying to get rid of the fuzz that surrounded his brain. He had no idea how hard he had hit the ground but as he looked around any thoughts he had previously had of his pain disappeared from his mind. He looked straight ahead of him at the burning carnage that littered the ground. He could just make out the shell of the warehouse, the only things left standing were the jousts that held the walls up, but they were burning like beacons and looked ready to collapse.   
  
He looked at the remaining people. Brennan was holding Shalimar in his arms, the blow had proved to be too much for her. Adam was staring on in shock with Emma standing at his side, silent tears streaming down her face. Maia and Alex were standing off to one side, holding a silent reverie for their lost friend, both pale as ghosts, wide eyes staring at nothing in particular.  
  
The building, what was left of it continued to burn quietly, small flames licking at the ground surrounding the site. Shalimar stirred in Brennan's arms and she opened her eyes slowly, allowing them to adjust to the bright light of day. She looked around at the wreck of a warehouse. She looked across at the people surrounding her and saw all of them except one. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly as a mixture of pride and relief filled her. Mac had done what Shalimar had always been so afraid to do; she had given up her life in the search for vengeance, for justice. And as ashamed as Shalimar was that she was feeling relief in the wake of Mac's death she couldn't push it down deep inside of her. Gabriel was dead, she had nothing more to worry about as far as that was concerned. She leant her head into Brennan's shoulder and breathed a deep sigh as she drifted off once more into the world of the unconscious.   
  
***  
  
Maia pulled her mum closer and buried her head deep into her shoulder. It felt so good to be getting back to the normal everyday things. Her and Alex were going home, back to their families, not quite back to their normal lives but that was normal for her. Atleast she could properly get into the grieving process. She missed her friend. She knew it would get improve, eventually one day would be better than the one that preceded it.   
  
Brennan and Shalimar watched on from the cockpit of the Helix. Some part of them wanted that. They had both been deprived of proper families. Shalimar had gotten an abusive father who had placed her in a mental institution because he though that would help cure her and Brennan had lived on the streets so long he didn't even remember his family. And some part of them would always want that; a mum and dad that cared about them no matter what their genetic make-up was, parents that would love unconditionally.   
  
'Don't you wish you had that?' Brennan asked quietly.   
  
'I do,' Shalimar replied smiling. 'I got my dad and my brother and my sister,' she said motioning at the three members of Mutant X.  
  
'And where do I fit in?' Brennan asked after a moments pause.   
  
Shalimar turned the chair to face him. 'Take a wild guess,' she said, a mischievous grin spreading across her face.   
  
'As fun as guessing would be right now, I think we should probably go say bye to Maia and Alex.'  
  
They walked out of the Helix into the sunshine and walked the short distance between the ship and the group of people.   
  
'Are they in any danger now?' asked Alex's father, looking at Adam.  
  
'They shouldn't be. Chances are that the Strand will fall apart without Gabriel to lead it. If you still don't feel secure I can relocate all of you.'  
  
'We just thought that maybe there had been enough upheaval over the past few days. And atleast you guys are in new schools.' Emma finished.  
  
The two sets of families looked reassured and Maia and Alex separated from them to say goodbye to their extended family.   
  
'Thank you for looking out for us,' Maia said. She was sad to be leaving Mutant X, they had been the one group of people she knew would understand what she was going through. And now they were going to be in different continents and she would probably never see any of them again. Alex was gonna miss them but also the excitement. He got a certain rush from fighting and giving in to his feral desires. But after all the heartache that both he and Maia had received he wasn't gonna miss any of it that much.  
  
'If you ever need any of us, we are only at the other end of a computer,' Jesse encouraged them.  
  
Hugs and smiles were passed around and then they were gone. The team looked at each other and as one began the walk back to the Helix. The door closed behind them and within seconds they also were gone.   
  
She watched from the safety of a roof across the street, her cheeks wet with the few tears she had allowed herself to shed. She wasn't sad to be leaving her old life behind. It was exactly what she needed to do. She would start again, make new friends, achieve new things, dream new dreams.   
  
She turned around and looked into the distance, wondering if that would finally make her happy. She thought it would. She had gained her closure, now all that was left was for her to move on. One day she would come back.   
  
'But not today,' Mac whispered to herself before taking a step off the building to the floor below. And with a smile she walked on into her new world. 


End file.
